Help to understand nginx configuration principle (general)

If you're looking to serve multiple sites, each with its own root, based on server name - then in nginx this can be done something like this:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    server_name foo.com;

    root /srv/sites/foo.com/html;
    ...
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    server_name bar.com;

    root /srv/sites/bar.com/html;
    ...
}

Each server block having its own server_name and its own root.

@kmansoft

So nginx eliminates global setting?

@Jake I believe it's possible to put root "globally", inside an http block, but …

… given your declared goal of serving multiple sites from same config, each site with its own root, a single root setting just won't do, isn't that true? Maybe I've missed something in your question, my apologies.

@kmansoft

fwiw font decorations, anything in all caps, or with dashes is not meant as rudeness but for clarification (mine really) since I seem to be struggling so hard to word my question in a sensible way. Thanks for understanding; really, really thanks for the help.

2 issues are involved in the question..

1. The location of the root for-each domain
2. The location of the index.html within each unique root, for each domain.

I wanted to do something in a particular way but wasn't sure if my intended approach was (a) possible, (b) a very good idea or (c) would create a security issue.

For reference, purposes my directory structure looks like this right now..

$ pwd
/srv/apache/sites

$ tree ..
..
└── sites
    ├── bithouz
    │   ├── css
    │   │   ├── normalize.css
    │   │   └── stylesheet.css
    │   ├── html
    │   │   ├── bithouz.html
    │   │   └── develop.bithouz.html
    │   └── img
    │       └── under-construction-0.jpg
    └── jfines
        ├── css
        │   ├── normalize.css
        │   └── stylesheet.css
        ├── html
        │   ├── develop.jfines.html
        │   └── jfines.html
        └── img
            └── under-construction-0.jpg

On Ubuntu 18.04 server (my Linode's operating system) the nginx configuration files are located thus..

# Global config  
/etc/nginx/nginx.conf  

# Non-global config(s) -will be- at  
/etc/nginx/conf.d/bithouz.conf  

# And  
/etc/nginx/conf.d/jfines.conf  

Hereafter referred to as global and non-global respectively and identified specifically as bithouz.conf or jfines.conf where needed.

In the global config file some-thing like..

root   /srv/nginx/sites;  
# ^ Intended to set the global root for all domains as the 'sites' directory but nothing more.

And then in the non-global config(s) some-thing like..

root   bithouz/;

# and

root   jfines/;

# ^ Intended to set each unique root for each domain in the 'sites' directory (where jfines and bithouz are meant to be those root(s).

# What (I hoped would be) happening here in the non-global configs is to point the root into each of /srv/nginx/sites/bithouz and /srv/nginx/sites/jfines in one short, last hop.

In regard to issue 2 - the one about the location of index.html

In each one of the non-global configs would be some-thing like

index  html/index.html;  
# ^ meant to look for the index html file in the 'html' directory inside bithouz and in jfines respectively

Hey, thanks if you can understand that and advise on it. I don't know nginx directives well enough to use them in my question so I hope the gist of it is clear enough. Really appreciate it.

Ah so you want the paths in the server blocks to be relative to a global path (which in turn is defined once outside any server blocks).

Nope doesn't work that way (afaik).

The index directive can however be defined once, globally.

# nginx.conf

index  index.html

and then

# bithouz.conf

server {
  root /srv/nginx/sites/bithouz/html;
}

# jfines.conf

server {
  root /srv/nginx/sites/jfines/html;
}

@kmansoft

Ah so you want the paths in the server blocks to be relative to a global path (which in turn is defined once outside any server blocks).

Precisely.

Nope doesn't work that way (afaik).

Good to know - saves me time and frustration.

The index directive can however be defined once, globally.

Sounds pretty awesome - probably do that.

Reaally appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me man.

Have a great week. I'm sure we'll bump into one another again some time (I ain't goin' nowhere). :>