returning 404 in nginx location block

Question

server{

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    listen 18081;
    root /home/maxou;
    error_page 404 /webserv/error/404.html;

    location \.css
    {
        root /home/maxou/webserv/error;
    }

    location ~ /images {
    return 404;
}

When I try to access a uri starting with images/ I get my custom 404.html error page but without the css. The GET uri for my css is /images/somefile.css and of course dont find it because it is located in /webserv/error. I dont understand why the css extension block doesnt have the priority on the /images block since I have no optional modifier. What am I doing wrong ? How to return a 404 code with my custom html and css with the routes /images ?

Answer 1

Your location is wrong

location \.css

For regexp location, you must use ~ or ~* modifier, like:

location ~* \.css

nginx location Regular expressions are specified with the preceding “~*” modifier (for case-insensitive matching), or the “~” modifier (for case-sensitive >matching).

suppose 404.html and style.css locate in /var/www/html/custom_errors,
link tag in 404.html:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="custom_errors/style.css">
then config will be something like:

error_page 404 /404.html;
location = /404.html{
  root /var/www/html/custom_errors;
  internal;
}
location ~ /images {
  return 404;
}

Now if request http://hostname.tld/images, you'll get custom 404 error page with your css style.