Configure nginx to return different files to different authenticated users with the same URI

Question

I'm using nginx to serve static files in an embedded system, with no CGI back-end. I have basic-authentication up with multiple username/passwords. I'd like to have a specific URI deliver different content based on the name of the currently authenticated user.

For instance, let's say a browser requested URI /index.html. If the browser was authenticated as user "developer", then it could be served the file /index_developer.html. If instead the browser was authenticated as "administrator" it could be served the file /index_administrator.html.

I only want this redirection to occur on a small set of files; most will be served as-is. I'd also need to block direct access to the actual files so that nobody could do an end-run around the system.

Answer 1

First, there is variable $remote_user.

I've end up with following structure:

$ tree
.
├── _auth
│   ├── admin
│   │   ├── f
│   │   │   └── index.html
│   │   ├── hello.html
│   │   └── index.html
│   └── user
│       ├── f
│       │   └── index.html
│       └── index.html
├── f
│   └── x.html
├── hello.html
├── test.html
└── x
    └── index.html

and this nginx config:

auth_basic "Restricted area";
auth_basic_user_file path/to/passwd/file;

root /path/to/root;

location / {
    try_files /_auth/$remote_user$uri
              /_auth/$remote_user$uri/index.html
              $uri $uri/index.html =404;
}

location /_auth/ {
    internal;
}

So request to / will end up in /_auth/USER/index.html, request to /test.html will serve /test.html. And request to /hello.html will serve /_auth/admin/hello.html for user admin and /hello.html for any other user.

Direct access to /_auth/.. is forbidden by internal directive.