Exploring the Rewrite module

This module, in particular, brings much more functionality to NGINX than a simple set of directives. It defines a whole new level of request processing that will be explained throughout this section.

Initially, the purpose of this module (as the name suggests) is to perform URL rewriting. This mechanism allows you to get rid of ugly URLs containing multiple parameters—for instance, http://example.com/article.php?id=1234&comment=32—such URLs being particularly uninformative and meaningless for a regular visitor.

Instead, links to your website will contain useful information that indicates the nature of the page you are about to visit. The URL given in the example becomes http://website.com/article-1234-32-US-economy-strengthens.html. This solution is not only more interesting for your visitors but also for search engines. URL rewriting is a key element of search engine optimization (SEO).

The principle behind this mechanism is...