Plugin Support
Peter
(@petersquirrly)
Hi,
Thank you for your thoughts! I’m sorry to hear that you encountered difficulties with your new host. The plugin is designed and tested with a standard WordPress installation that uses directories, not symlinks (shortcuts). We haven’t run into issues before where WordPress is installed in a different location and the site directory only contains a shortcut. This unusual setup is most likely the cause of the incompatibility you’re experiencing.
That being said, we are fully compatible with Nginx servers. Here are a few detailed guides that cover different scenarios:
We’ve worked to cover all possible scenarios so that our users can keep their website protected no matter their server type.
Plugin Support
Peter
(@petersquirrly)
Update: We’ve tested this using symlinks, and Apache works fine with the FollowSymlinks option enabled, no issues there.
For Nginx, you’ll need to add the following configuration before the include line for WP Ghost:
# Custom paths for WordPress core assets
location /core/ {
alias /path-to-website/wp-content/;
}
location /lib/ {
alias /path-to-website/wp-includes/;
}
location /storage/ {
alias /path-to-website/wp-content/uploads/;
}
Here’s what to keep in mind:
- The values
core, lib, and storage are the default custom paths in WP Ghost. These must match the paths you’ve set in WP Ghost > Change Paths > Core Security.
- The
/path-to-website/ part should be replaced with the actual root path of your website where the symlinks are located.
Once this is configured, everything should work correctly with WP Ghost on Nginx.
Thanks greatly for the follow-up, Peter! I’ll ask pressable if they can add it but their docs (thus help bot) say it can not be done. So likely not.
Looking for another way – do all HMWPG HTML rewrite/masking functions require symlinks? What features/settings might I be able to use on pressable’s nginx-based server without config access?
Pressable’s response: “At this time we don’t support modification of server configuration like NGINX on a per-site basis.”
Maybe a lite Nginx-compatible plugin that doesn’t require config edits?
Also, please start listing hosts like Pressable running Nginx that your (otherwise awesome) plugin are not compatible with. 🙂
Plugin Support
Peter
(@petersquirrly)
We rechecked this on Nginx with a symlink setup and it works fine, even without those extra settings. Still, it’s best to include the proper Nginx config lines for full compatibility.
In your case, the issue came from the missing include line in the Nginx config. Once that’s added, everything should work as expected.
WP Ghost works correctly on Nginx servers where that config can be added. The only exceptions are non-managed servers or those where server settings can’t be changed, as mentioned here:
WP Ghost Exceptions
Thanks for checking and for your feedback!
Not that I would have found it before migrating but adding pressable.com/automattic to https://wpghost.com/kb/wp-ghost-exceptions/ should give others a chance.
Great host. Great plugin! Sad they’re incompatible.
