Nginx File Download: Complete Configuration Guide

1 year ago
Benjamin Taylor
1 minute

There are several methods in nginx to download files.

  1. Download the file using the original URL path: Simply enter the file’s URL path in the browser to download the file, for example http://example.com/file.zip.
  2. To enable file downloading in nginx configuration, you can add a location directive in the nginx configuration file like the following.
location /downloads {
    alias /path/to/files;
}

When accessing http://example.com/downloads/file.zip, nginx will serve the file for downloading to the client.

  1. Achieve file download using the X-Accel-Redirect directive: By using the X-Accel-Redirect directive, you can redirect the request to a specified file path in order to download the file, for example:
location /download {
    internal;
    alias /path/to/files;
}

In the application handling requests, set the response header X-Accel-Redirect to /download/file.zip to enable file download.

These are common file download methods in nginx, the specific method you choose depends on your actual needs and environment.

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