I’m trying to configure Nginx to serve my application without exposing a subdirectory in the URL. My application files are located in a subdirectory (ddformbuilder), but I want the URLs to appear as if they are served directly from the root domain without the subdirectory being visible.

Current Setup:

Domain: https://app.example.com

Application Directory: /var/app/current/ddformbuilder/

Desired URL: I want URLs like https://app.example.com/login.php instead of https://app.example.com/ddformbuilder/login.php.

Current Nginx Configuration:

files:
  "/etc/nginx/conf.d/01_custom.conf":
    mode: "000644"
    owner: root
    group: root
    content: |
      server {
        listen 80;
        server_name app.example.com;

        root /var/app/current/ddformbuilder/;

        index index.php;

        location / {
          root /ddformbuilder;
          try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
        }

        location ~ .php$ {
          include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
          fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
          fastcgi_index index.php;
          fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
          fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT /var/app/current/ddformbuilder;
        }
      }

Even with this configuration, the URLs still include the subdirectory (ddformbuilder). When I try to access https://app.example.com/login.php, I get a “File not found” error. However, the URL https://app.example.com/ddformbuilder/login.php works fine.

I need the root URL (https://app.example.com) to serve files from /var/app/current/ddformbuilder/ without showing ddformbuilder in the URL path.

What I Tried:

• Adjusting the root directive and try_files settings.
• Testing different configurations in the location block.
• Changing Nginx configuration and reloading Nginx (sudo nginx -t confirms the configuration is okay).