Hosting Operations

Map Nginx Roots and Aliases

You need to find which document roots and aliases Nginx config points at.

Command

grep -RInE '^[[:space:]]*(root|alias)[[:space:]]' fixtures/nginx/conf.d fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled

What changed

Nothing changes. The command lists filesystem path directives from config.

Danger

safe

When to use it

Use when static assets, uploads, or index files return 404 unexpectedly.

When not to use it

Do not assume root and alias behave the same inside location blocks.

Undo or recovery

No undo needed because this command is read-only.

Expected output

Config paths and lines containing root or alias directives.

demo script

Disposable terminal steps

grep -RInE '^[[:space:]]*(root|alias)[[:space:]]' fixtures/nginx/conf.d fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled
grep -RInE '^[[:space:]]*location[[:space:]]' fixtures/nginx/conf.d fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled

Terminal transcript Demo JSON

simulated output

What it looks like

disposable vessel

::fixture-ready::
$ grep -RInE '^[[:space:]]*(root|alias)[[:space:]]' fixtures/nginx/conf.d fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled
fixtures/nginx/conf.d/admin.conf:4:    root /srv/www/admin;
fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled/example.conf:9:    root /srv/www/example/current/public;
fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled/example.conf:12:        alias /srv/www/example/current/assets/;
::exit-code::0
$ grep -RInE '^[[:space:]]*location[[:space:]]' fixtures/nginx/conf.d fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled
fixtures/nginx/conf.d/admin.conf:5:    location / {
fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled/example.conf:11:    location /assets/ {
fixtures/nginx/sites-enabled/example.conf:14:    location /api/ {
::exit-code::0

YouTube Short

Find where Nginx serves files.

A 404 can be a path problem, not an app problem. List root and alias directives before moving files.

experiments

A/B tests to run

Metric: save_rate

A: The path was wrong.

B: Map root and alias lines.