nginx Compatibility

The plugin solves two problems:

1. When WordPress detects that FastCGI PHP SAPI is in use, it
   disregards the redirect status code
   passed to wp_redirect. Thus, all 301 redrects become 302 redirects
   which may not be good for SEO. The plugin overrides wp_redirect when it detects
   that nginx is used.
2. When WordPress detects that mod_rewrite is not loaded (which is the case for nginx as
   it does not load any Apache modules) it falls back to PATHINFO permalinks
   in Permalink Settings page. nginx itself has built-in support for URL rewriting and does not need
   PATHINFO permalinks. Thus, when the plugin detects that nginx is used, it makes WordPress think
   that mod_rewrite is loaded and it is OK to use pretty permalinks.

The plugin does not require any configuration. It just does its work.
You won’t notice it — install and forget.

WARNING: nginx must be configured properly to support permalinks.

nginx Configuration

nginx 0.7.32 and higher:

server {
    server_name mysite.com;

    root /path/to/blog;

    index index.php;

    error_page 404 = @wordpress;
    log_not_found off;

    location ^~ /files/ {
        rewrite /files/(.+) /wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 last;
    }

    location @wordpress {
        fastcgi_pass ...;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/index.php;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /index.php;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri @wordpress;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_pass ...;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ^~ /blogs.dir/ {
        internal;
        root /path/to/blog/wp-content;
    }
}

Older versions:

server {
    server_name mysite.com;

    root /path/to/blog;

    index index.php;

    log_not_found off;
    error_page 404 = @wordpress;

    location ^~ /files/ {
        rewrite /files/(.+) /wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 last;
    }

    location @wordpress {
        fastcgi_pass ...;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/index.php;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /index.php;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        if (!-e $request_filename) {
            rewrite ^(.+)$ /index.php break;
            break;
        }

        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_pass ...;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ^~ /blogs.dir/ {
        internal;
        root /path/to/blog/wp-content;
    }
}

Of course, do not forget to replace ... in fastcgi_pass with the address/socket
php-cgi is listening on and replace /path/to/blog with the actual path.

Also please note that the path in SCRIPT_NAME should be relative to the DOCUMENT_ROOT (root directive).
Thus, if your WordPress blog resides in http://example.com/blog/, root is set to /path.to/example.com,
SCRIPT_NAME in location @wordpress will be /blog/index.php.

Multi-Site Configuration: the above configs work perfectly with WordPress MultiSite. To make downloads faster, consider adding this line to wp-config.php:

define('WPMU_ACCEL_REDIRECT', true);

Need help with configuring nginx? Contact me: vkolesnikov at odesk dot com, I will try to help you.