Nginx config for rails application

[app_name]

#
# These are some basic settings for nginx.
# If it's not installed, install via `apt-get install nginx`
# Many pieces of this config came from other people's settings. Sorry for the lack of attribution.
#

upstream [app_name]_unicorn {
    server unix:/tmp/[app_name].sock;
}

server {
    listen 80;

    # Set the max size for file uploads to 50Mb
    client_max_body_size 10M;

    # output compression saves bandwidth
    gzip  on;
    gzip_http_version 1.1;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    # make sure gzip does not lose large gzipped js or css files
    # see http://blog.leetsoft.com/2007/7/25/nginx-gzip-ssl
    gzip_buffers 16 8k;

    # Disable gzip for certain browsers.
    gzip_disable “MSIE [1-6].(?!.*SV1)”;

    # sets the domain[s] that this vhost server requests for
    server_name [app_name];

    # doc root
    root /var/www/[app_name]/current/public;

    # vhost specific access log
    access_log  /var/log/nginx/[app_name].access.log;

    # this rewrites all the requests to the maintenance.html
    # page if it exists in the doc root. This is for capistrano's
    # disable web task
    if (-f $document_root/system/maintenance.html) {
      rewrite  ^(.*)$  /system/maintenance.html last;
      break;
    }

    # Setting far future expires header for app static assets
    location ~ ^/(images|javascript|stylesheets|system|downloads|assets)/ {
      expires max;
      break;
    }

    location / {
      # needed to forward user's IP address to rails
      proxy_set_header  X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;

      # needed for HTTPS
      proxy_set_header  X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
      proxy_redirect off;
      proxy_max_temp_file_size 0;

     location /files {
       root /var/www/[app_name]/current;
       internal;
     }

      # If the file exists as a static file serve it directly without
      # running all the other rewite tests on it
      if (-f $request_filename) {
        break;
      }

      # check for index.html for directory index
      # if its there on the filesystem then rewite
      # the url to add /index.html to the end of it
      # and then break to send it to the next config rules.
      if (-f $request_filename/index.html) {
        rewrite (.*) $1/index.html break;
      }

      # this is the meat of the rails page caching config
      # it adds .html to the end of the url and then checks
      # the filesystem for that file. If it exists, then we
      # rewite the url to have explicit .html on the end
      # and then send it on its way to the next config rule.
      # if there is no file on the fs then it sets all the
      # necessary headers and proxies to our upstream mongrels
      if (-f $request_filename.html) {
        rewrite (.*) $1.html break;
      }

      if (!-f $request_filename) {
        proxy_pass http://[app_name]_unicorn;
        break;
      }

      error_page   500 502 503 504  /500.html;
      location = /500.html {
        root   /var/www/[app_name]/current/public;
      }
    }
}

• This file should be located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/[app_name].
• We enable this via ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/[app_name] /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/[app_name]