Remove File Extensions From URLs (NGINX)

Clean up the appearance of URLs slightly by removing file extensions from the URL path. Should not be misinterpreted as a way to ‘cloak the technology in use’, but rather just to tidy up URLs a bit.

To allow extension-less filenames in URLs, add the following location block:

server {

	# ...

	location / {
		try_files $uri.php $uri $uri/ =404;
	}

	# ...

}

This would cause requests to /articles/popular to be:

• rewritten as /articles/popular.php if that file physically exists
• if not, and there is already an extension-less file, then it will be served
• if neither of those apply but there is a directory named /articles/popular/ then that will be served
• and finally, if none of those exist the server will return a 404 Not Found.

Replace or add variations of $uri.php with the file extension appropriate for your given language.