Applicable to:
- Plesk for Linux
Question
How to enable leverage browser caching (cache expiration) for nginx?
Answer
Warning: it will not work if Serve static files directly by nginx option is enabled in Domains > example.com > Apache & nginx Settings.
-
Go to Domains > example.com > Apache & nginx Settings and add in Additional nginx directives:
CONFIG_TEXT: location ~* .(js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|css|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|pdf|ppt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|swf|ico|flv|txt|woff|woff2|svg)$ {
etag on;
if_modified_since exact;
add_header Pragma "public";
add_header Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public";
}To add this directive on a service plan level, go to Service Plans > plan_name > Web Server > nginx directives.
-
If Serve static files directly by nginx option is enabled in Domains > example.com > Apache & nginx Settings, it is required to disable it. When it is enabled, the location directive is added to nginx configuration and further specified location directives (like in Additional nginx directives) with regular expressions will be ignored.
See official nginx documentation for details. -
To test if the directive is applied successfully run curl command with any static file:
# curl -I -c - "https://example.com/example.txt" -k
-
Log in to the server via SSH
-
Create an additional nginx configuration file:
# touch /etc/nginx/conf.d/expires.global
-
Open this file using text editor and paste following directives into it:
CONFIG_TEXT: location ~* .(js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|css|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|pdf|ppt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|swf|ico|flv|txt|woff|woff2|svg)$ {
etag on;
if_modified_since exact;
add_header Pragma "public";
add_header Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public";
} -
Run the following command to create a directory for custom configuration templates:
# mkdir -p /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/custom/domain/
-
Copy default nginx template to the newly created directory:
# cp -p /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/default/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.php /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/custom/domain/
-
Open
/usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/custom/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.phpwith any text editor(e.g.nanoorvi) and add the following line in the bottom of the file:CONFIG_TEXT: include /etc/nginx/conf.d/expires.global;
So, the bottom of
/usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/custom/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.phpfile will look like:CONFIG_TEXT: include /etc/nginx/conf.d/expires.global;
<?php if (is_file($VAR->domain->physicalHosting->customNginxConfigFile)): ?>
include "<?php echo $VAR->domain->physicalHosting->customNginxConfigFile ?>";
<?php endif ?>
}As a result, all newly created domains will have leverage browser caching automatically enabled.
-
In order to apply this to all existing domains, it is required to reconfigure all the domains with the following command:
# /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/httpdmng --reconfigure-all
Warning: Consider running above command during the maintenance time as it may cause some downtime for websites.
Note: the aforementioned directives will set etag header meaning that the content will be stored on the client side and not be refreshed until it is modified on the server. Alternatively, the expiration time can be specified explicitly using the following directives:
CONFIG_TEXT: location ~* .(js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|css|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|pdf|ppt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|swf|ico|flv|txt|woff|woff2|svg)$ {
expires 30d;
add_header Pragma "public";
add_header Cache-Control "public";
}
30d means that cache will be expired in 30 days. To change cache expiration to 1 hour or 1 minute instead, use:
CONFIG_TEXT: expires 1h;
expires 1m;
Note: If Google PageSpeed Insights extension is used on the server and leverage browser caching for nginx is enabled globally, then the functionality of Google PageSpeed Insights is being broken.
Additional information
Depending on the type of content that is served, it might be required to enable caching for Apache too since different types of content is served by either nginx or Apache:
How to enable leverage browser caching in Plesk?
The explicit expiration time may not be applied when PHP handler is set as FPM application served by nginx:
Cache expiration header in additional Nginx directives does not get applied
Expiration may not be applied for WordPress website with Hotlink protection enabled: Additional nginx directives/Leverage browser caching are ignored for a WordPress website
Comments
28 comments
nginx not ngnix :P
@minzkung Thanks! I corrected it :)
Is possible to enable globally?
@Horacio Stolovitzky, Hi! Please check this article again, it now contains the steps how to enable it globally.
Hi, after implementing this(not globally), my dynamic website stopped showing styles, images, etc.., and loading has time increased from 1.5s to +-10s. What can cause that?
Leverage Browser Caching you should use the plugin: Leverage Browser Caching
link down: https://wordpress.org/plugins/leverage-browser-caching/
I used for website: http://www.thuocmaxman.vn/ and get 99/100 points. only ... / google analytics.js (2 hours)
@Bogdan Dovgopol
Instructions in the article cannot increase loading time. It looks like some rewrite directives are missing.
@Thanhkieu2022
Thank you for sharing this information. This is another way of enabling Leverage Browser Caching.
Other Pleskians may find it useful.
Tried on Wordpress. Wordpress is not compatible with this. Will result in 404.
@Sharul
For Wordpress try this plugin.
@Thanhkieu2022, @Ivan Postnikov
This plugin is only for Apache but this is article about leverage browser caching for nginx. Please don't post wrong information.
@Miomir
Thank you for the notice about the plugin.
I have double checked it. It is applicable for Apache only.
This works if you add under Apache & nginx Settings in Additional nginx directives:
Add Expires Headers
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ { expires 365d; } location ~* \.(pdf|html|swf)$ { expires 90d; }Add Cache-Control Headers
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ { expires 90d; add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform"; }
I have tested with Wordpress and it works great. If Serve static files directly by nginx option is enabled in Domains > example.com > Apache & nginx Settings, it is required to disable it.
Pingdom and GTmetrix honor this.
Thank you very much for all amazing and helpful articles.
I use nginx only in subscription settings (service plans)
Please, please, for all those who use this environment it would be the greatest gift if you could write also support articles for using
only nginx
Wish you all the best. PLESK is awesome...
Hello @Markus!
Thank you for the feedback.
Sure, new articles are driven by demand. If there will be questions or issues regarding using Nginx only, the corresponding articles will be created.
This works well for my WordPress installation and sets the expires headers that I'm after, however URLs for "virtual files" that don't physically exist on the server in WordPress [such as robots.txt] now return a 404 page. I believe this is because no further Nginx processing takes place after the headers are set with the location directive.
Much advice on the internet suggests the use of try_files directive but the solution I am looking for is more along the lines of "for any file that doesn't physically exist on the server, ask Apache for it". Is something along these lines possible?
I give robots.txt as an example but the solution needs to be generic so it can also handle secure files that are stored outside of the webroot with rewriting carried out by Apache.
***EDIT***
From digging into the NGINX docs I see that what I actually want is a nested location directive - the initial block is lifted from the default nginx config within plesk, the second block adds expires headers to relevant files:
location / {
proxy_pass http://77.68.75.xxx:7080;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Accel-Internal /internal-nginx-static-location;
access_log off;
location ~* \.(js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|css|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|pdf|ppt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|swf|ico|flv|woff|woff2|svg|ttf)$ {
etag on;
if_modified_since exact;
add_header Pragma "public";
add_header Cache-Control "max-age=1209600, public";
}
}
I can test the above by manually editing the /vhosts/system/[domain]/conf/nginx.conf file and restarting nginx systemctl restart nginx.
This directive can't be applied using the Additional Nginx Directives option within plesk as a location directive for / already exists in the template, so any changes will be overwritten each time nginx.conf is recreated. How/where can I amend the plesk nginx template so that the individual vhost conf files that are generated use this modified directive?
Hello, @Peter Shaw.
Please try combining the directives with the ones specified in the following knowledge base article:
A WordPress website on a Plesk server shows "404 Not Found" on all pages except index.php, when running on FPM by nginx
Any disadvantages to enable this for all Customers?
Does it make more CPU / RAM Load?
@Lenor
> Does it make more CPU / RAM Load?
No
> Any disadvantages to enable this for all Customers?
It might affect some customers websites. For example, if the content was changed but the web browser may keep using the old version from the local cache as the content is yet to be expired.
in your article about enabling gzip compression, you advise to create
/etc/nginx/conf.d/gzip.conf(which will be automatically picked up because of wildard include in nginx.conf)
but in this article you advise creating
/etc/nginx/conf.d/expires.globaland then adding include rule inside
/usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/default/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.phpwhy the difference? what are the (dis-)advantages of one approach over the other?
@Tomasz Paluszkiewicz
Because "location" directive is not allowed in "http" context.
@Robert Asilbekov
but then, gzip compression could also be applied the same way as expiry rules, right?
@Tomasz Paluszkiewicz
Correct, gzip compression could be also enabled this way. But it is better to enable gzip globally in "http" context and later it can be turned off for a particular subscription.
Because gzip contexts are:
http,server,location,if in location@Peter Shaw
Hi! Please refer to our documentation here. You can edit nginx template, so the directive will be applied to all domains.
Thanks @Alisa Kasyanova,
Created /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/custom/domain/service/proxy.php and copied in the corresponding file from /templates/default. Added the following block below 'access_log off;':
access_log off;
<?php /** add expires headers where required. **/ ?>
location ~* \.(js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|css|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|pdf|ppt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|swf|ico|flv|woff|woff2|svg|ttf)$ {
etag on;
if_modified_since exact;
add_header Pragma "public";
add_header Cache-Control "max-age=86400, public";
}
Regenerate nginx configuration files with /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/httpdmng --reconfigure-all
EDIT ***
The above is along the right lines but it is not the correct solution to the issue as ther resulting nginx.conf file doesn't give the desired headers for all requests - some requests for virtual files are not passed on when they should be.
@Peter Shaw
I suppose it is because the resulting nginx configuration file for a domain (you can check any, say, /etc/nginx/plesk.conf.d/vhosts/example.com.conf) has a location directive inside another location directive.
Try to add lines starting from "location..." to /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates/custom/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.php . For example, before "<?php if (!$VAR->domain->physicalHosting->proxySettings['nginxTransparentMode'] " and reconfigure the files. Then check the /etc/nginx/plesk.conf.d/vhosts/example.com.conf) again: it should have the "location..." as a separate section.
Hope it helps!
I think this article should be listed in Additional Information here.
Additional nginx directives/Leverage browser caching are ignored for a WordPress website
https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014674853
(via https://talk.plesk.com/threads/browser-caching-suddenly-disabled.350651)
@Cirrus Tecnologia
Thank you for the feedback!
Indeed, this link will be useful here. I've updated the article accordingly.
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