nginx static images fallback -

i use nginx 1.6.2 serve static images folder. need serve requested file if exists or fallback default image.

i had location block

location /test/img/ {     rewrite  ^/test/img/(.*)  /$1 break;     root   /path/to/folder/images;     try_files $uri /default.jpg; } 

the "/path/to/folder/images" folder contains 2 files: image1.jpg , default.jpg. if request existing image works correctly. example, if on url

<host_name>/test/img/image1.jpg 

i can see correct image if search unknown image had 404 response. error.log file can see error:

[error] 18128#0: *1 open() "/etc/nginx/html/default.jpg" failed (2: no such file or directory) 

why nginx searchs default.jpg in folder? expected search file in root of location block. tried without success use absolute path. in advance.

try_files last parameter leads internal redirect. nginx acts if called uri /default.jpg , not go /test/img/.

but problem fixed alias directive without rewrites.

location /test/img/ {     alias /path/to/folder/images/;     try_files $uri default.jpg =404; } 

testing config

server {     listen 127.0.0.1:8888;     location /test/img/ {         alias /var/tmp/site/images/;         try_files $uri default.jpg =404;         error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log debug;     } } 

requests:

curl localhost:8888/test/img/image.jpg curl localhost:8888/test/img/non-existent.jpg 

debug log:

... image.jpg 2015/06/05 12:16:53 [debug] 4299#0: *5 try files phase: 14 2015/06/05 12:16:53 [debug] 4299#0: *5 http script var: "/test/img/image.jpg" 2015/06/05 12:16:53 [debug] 4299#0: *5 trying use file: "image.jpg" "/var/tmp/site/images/image.jpg" 2015/06/05 12:16:53 [debug] 4299#0: *5 try file uri: "/test/img/image.jpg"  ... non-existent.jpg 2015/06/05 12:15:50 [debug] 4299#0: *4 try files phase: 14 2015/06/05 12:15:50 [debug] 4299#0: *4 http script var: "/test/img/non-existent.jpg" 2015/06/05 12:15:50 [debug] 4299#0: *4 trying use file: "non-existent.jpg" "/var/tmp/site/images/non-existent.jpg" 2015/06/05 12:15:50 [debug] 4299#0: *4 trying use file: "default.jpg" "/var/tmp/site/images/default.jpg" 2015/06/05 12:15:50 [debug] 4299#0: *4 try file uri: "/test/img/default.jpg"