Martin Fjordvald

To understand the inheritance model of nginx you first need to know that nginx operates with multiple blocks of configuration. In nginx such a block is referred to as a context, for instance, a configuration directive placed in server context resides within a server { } block just like a directive placed in http context resides in the http { } block.

There are 6 possible contexts in nginx, here in top to bottom order:

• Global.
• Http.
• Server.
• If.
• Location.
  • Nested Location.
  • If in location.
  • limit_except.

The default inheritance model is that directives inherit downwards only. Never sideways and definitely never up. This includes scenarios where you rewrite a request internally from one location to another – every directive in the first location is forgotten and only the second location directives apply for the location context.