WordPress-Nginx + WP Super cache

Assumption:

1. You already installed PHP, MySQL, Nginx & Postfix
2. You already installed a fresh WordPress or moved an existing WordPress to current server

Based on these assumptions, we will jump to directly a WordPress-Nginx configuration part.

Standard WordPress-Nginx configuration with WP Super cache support:

As you are getting into Nginx, I hope you don’t need my help with configuring WP Super Cache plugin.

Still, make sure you are using “Use mod_rewrite to serve cache files. (Recommended)” option under “Advanced” tab.

Following configuration supports:

1. Static Page Caching using Disk
2. Direct browser cache for static content like images, js, css, etc

server {
	server_name example.com www.example.com;

	access_log   /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
	error_log    /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log debug;

	root /var/www/example.com/htdocs;
	index index.php;

	set $cache_uri $request_uri;

	# POST requests and urls with a query string should always go to PHP
	if ($request_method = POST) {
		set $cache_uri 'null cache';
	}   
	if ($query_string != "") {
		set $cache_uri 'null cache';
	}   

	# Don't cache uris containing the following segments
	if ($request_uri ~* "(/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|/wp-(app|cron|login|register|mail).php|wp-.*.php|/feed/|index.php|wp-comments-popup.php|wp-links-opml.php|wp-locations.php|sitemap(_index)?.xml|[a-z0-9_-]+-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml)") {
		set $cache_uri 'null cache';
	}   

	# Don't use the cache for logged in users or recent commenters
	if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author|wordpress_[a-f0-9]+|wp-postpass|wordpress_logged_in") {
		set $cache_uri 'null cache';
	}

	# Use cached or actual file if they exists, otherwise pass request to WordPress
	location / {
		try_files /wp-content/cache/supercache/$http_host/$cache_uri/index.html $uri $uri/ /index.php ;
	}    

	location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
	location = /robots.txt  { log_not_found off; access_log off; }

	location ~ .php$ {
		try_files $uri /index.php; 
		include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
	}

	# Cache static files for as long as possible
	location ~* .(ogg|ogv|svg|svgz|eot|otf|woff|mp4|ttf|css|rss|atom|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|ppt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf)$ {
		expires max; log_not_found off; access_log off;
	}
}

Note:

Don’t Forget:

Always test your Nginx configuration and then reload it. All changes to Nginx config must be followed with these commands:

nginx -t && service nginx reload

Important Note:

WP Super Cache caching will conflict with plugins that uses query vars. WooCommerce is an example known plugin known to work with above configuration. Reason is following line: 

try_files /wp-content/cache/supercache/$http_host/$cache_uri/index.html $uri $uri/ /index.php ;

It doesn’t passes $args to /index.php. If you set last try_files argument to /index.php?$args as with other WordPress-Nginx configuration, WP Super Cache, itself will break!

Must Read:

• Checklist For Perfect WordPress-Nginx Setup - It will help you verify if your caching will work after PHP/MySQL crash.
• Catch the complete list of WordPress-Nginx tutorials here.