How to stop logging `deny` errors of nginx directive?

Question

Nginx

There is a list of IP addresses of bots that I block on the server using the deny. The address file looks like this:

deny Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ…;
deny Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ…;
deny Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ…;
deny Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ….Ñ…Ñ…;

Every time a request is made to the server from these IP addresses, nginx writes an error in the logs:

[error] 22227#22227: *13997436 access forbidden by rule, client: xx.xx.xx.xx

How to prevent him from logging these errors?

Answer 1

You can redirect all requests from these IPs to an empty file.
Or even simpler - return 444;

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there is no way to exclude these errors from the log. You can increase the logging level to crit, but you won't see all errors like error there