Nginx, try_files - why doesn't it work?

Question

Nginx

We have this config -

set $static_root /home/....
set $folder ...

location @vincent {
  proxy_pass http://vincent;
}

location ~* "/img/([a-z0-9\-]{2,5})/([a-z]{1,3})/([0-9]{1,2}\.jpg)" {

  set $cache $static_root/cached/$folder/$1/$2/$3;
  set $cache_common $static_root/cached/common/$1/$2/$3;


  try_files $cache $cache_common @vincent;

  #if (-f $cache) {
  #    return 301; break;
  #
}

We get a fallback on @vincent, although the cached file exists, and the uncommented IF gives us a 301 page. What have I done wrong?

Answer 1

try_files does not accept absolute paths, always appending the contents of $document_root before the string passed. So you need to set the normal value of the root.
You get something like:

location ~* "/img/([a-z0-9\-]{2,5})/([a-z]{1,3})/([0-9]{1,2}\.jpg)" {
  root /;
  set $cache $static_root/cached/$folder/$1/$2/$3;
  set $cache_common $static_root/cached/common/$1/$2/$3;
  try_files $cache $cache_common @vincent;
}

But something like this is better:

location ~* "/img/([a-z0-9\-]{2,5})/([a-z]{1,3})/([0-9]{1,2}\.jpg)" {
  root $static_root;
  set $cache /cached/$folder/$1/$2/$3;
  set $cache_common /cached/common/$1/$2/$3;
  try_files $cache $cache_common @vincent;
}

Answer 2

Sori that offtopic, you can throw off an example of a human config with ssl, otherwise I'm tired of asking here, no one answers.