# NGINX Location Configuration for Static Sites

### The Problem:

I was really frustrated when I couldn’t figure out how to add a static location to NGINX for a website I made for a game. I kept trying to do something like this:

```
location / {
  root /home/ubuntu/personal-website;
}

location /array {
  root /home/ubuntu/game-website/_site;
}
```

But everytime I tried to visit `http://ptsteadman.com/array`, I would get a 404 error. I tried a bunch of things: I changed the "root" of the the `/` location to my game website, and it worked. But no matter what I did, after using `sudo service nginx restart`, trying to visit the `/array` location still resulted in a 404. I couldn’t add the new route/location.

### The Solution:

Eventually, I realized that the text after the slash in the location is the directory that NGINX will try to find in the "root" location. So, `location /array` will look for the directory (or file) `array` in whatever directory "root" is set to. So, I created a symlink to the root of my static jekyll site with the command `ln -s /home/ubuntu/array-website/_site /home/ubuntu/array`, and then I could set up my nginx config file in `sites-enabled` as below:

```
location / {
  root /home/ubuntu/personal-website;
}

location /array {
  root /home/ubuntu;
}
```

I think this stuff is all pretty obvious to someone who really understands NGINX and file serving, but I only touch NGINX when I’ve finished a project and feel impatient to deploy. I think it’s very confusing that NGINX seems to handle paths differently between `/` locations and and `/foo` locations, but a real understanding of NGINX might clear things up.