Title: Nested WordPress installations using Nginx
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Nested WordPress installations using Nginx

 *  [davidossahdez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidossahdez/)
 * (@davidossahdez)
 * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nested-wordpress-installations-using-nginx/)
 * I’m trying to setup a WordPress site to sell “Premium WordPress Themes” using
   Nginx. Let’s say that the main domain is `example.com` and the subdomain is `
   themes.example.com`
 * At this point everything is working properly. This is how my config file looks
   right now:
 *     ```
       # Main domain pointing to the main WordPress installation
       server {
           listen 80;
           root /srv/www/example.com/webdata;
           server_name example.com www.example.com localhost;
           include wordpress-site.conf;
       }
   
       # Subdomain pointing to another WordPress installation
       # This can be achieved using a WordPress Multisite setup,
       # but for this project, it needs to be separated.
       server {
           listen 80;
           root /srv/www/themes.example.com/webdata;
           server_name themes.example.com;
           include wordpress-site.conf;
        }
       ```
   
 * Inside wordpress-site.conf are all the directives required for WordPress
 *     ```
       index index.php;
   
       location = /favicon.ico {
           log_not_found off;
           access_log off;
       }
   
       location = /robots.txt {
           allow all;
           log_not_found off;
           access_log off;
       }
   
       location / {
           try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
       }
   
       location ~ \.php$ {
           fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
           # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
   
           fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
           fastcgi_index index.php;
           include fastcgi_params;
       }
   
       location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
           expires max;
           log_not_found off;
       }
       ```
   
 * I’m getting trouble setting up the demo sites (to preview the premium themes 
   online). The URL should look like this: `themes.example.com/name-of-the-theme/
   demo`.
 * My first approach was to add a location block inside the subdomain directive.
   Something like this:
 *     ```
       # Subdomain pointing to another WordPress installation
       server {
           listen 80;
           root /srv/www/themes.example.com/webdata;
           server_name themes.example.com;
   
           location /name-of-the-theme/demo {
               # Points to another WordPress installation
               root /srv/www/themes.example.com/themes/name-of-the-theme/webdata;
           }
   
           include wordpress-site.conf;
        }
       ```
   
 * The problem is that instead of open the `index.php` located in the specified 
   root, I get a 404 error in themes.example.com because the page doesn’t exist (
   obviously).
 * How can I tell Nginx to use the specified WordPress Installation when the user
   type themes.example.com/name-of-the-theme/demo?
 * I know that this can be achieved with Multisite Setup, but in this case I REALLY
   need separated installations.
    Thanks in advance!
 * PD: This is how my directory structure looks like, if it helps. In the webdata
   directory are located all the WordPress files required for each site.
 *     ```
       [srv]
        |--[www]
            |--[example.com]  <---- Main Site
            |   |--[webdata]
            |   |--[logs]
            |--[themes.example.com]  <---- Subdomain
                |--[webdata]
                |--[logs]
                |--[themes]  <---- Demo Sites
                    |--[premium-theme-01]
                    |   |--[webdata]
                    |   |--[logs]
                    |--[premium-theme-02]
                    |   |--[webdata]
                    |   |--[logs]
                    |--[premium-theme-03]
                        |--[webdata]
                        |--[logs]
       ```
   

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Pothi Kalimuthu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pothi/)
 * (@pothi)
 * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nested-wordpress-installations-using-nginx/#post-3873025)
 * Your current configuration doesn’t work, because to serve PHP files for the demo
   site, the Nginx goes back to the “themes.example.com” site. Here’s the possible
   solution…
 *     ```
       # Subdomain pointing to another WordPress installation
       server {
           listen 80;
           root /srv/www/themes.example.com/webdata;
           server_name themes.example.com;
   
           location /name-of-the-theme/demo {
               # Points to another WordPress installation
               root /srv/www/themes.example.com/themes;
   
               try_files $uri $uri/ /name-of-the-theme/demo/index.php;
   
               location ~ \.php$ {
                   fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
                   # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
   
                   fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
                   fastcgi_index index.php;
                   include fastcgi_params;
               }
   
           }
   
           include wordpress-site.conf;
        }
       ```
   
 * If it doesn’t work, please post your error / access log too, that may help in
   troubleshooting further. If it works, you may want to copy the other configurations
   found in “wordpress-site.conf” and paste it inside the “location /name-of-the-
   theme/demo {” block.
 * **Update**: I fixed an error with “root” directive. You may want to change the
   directory structure, to suit the above configuration. Alternatively, you may 
   change the configuration to suit your directory structure!
 *  Thread Starter [davidossahdez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidossahdez/)
 * (@davidossahdez)
 * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nested-wordpress-installations-using-nginx/#post-3873050)
 * Hey Pothi, thanks! I didn’t know that I can nest location blocks. Thank you for
   your advice it was VERY helpful. I made some changes to make this work. Take 
   a look:
 *     ```
       location ~ ^/name-of-the-theme/demo {
               # Points to another WordPress installation
               root /srv/www/themes.example.com/themes;
               try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
   
               location ~ \.php$ {
                       fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
                       # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
   
                       fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
                       fastcgi_index index.php;
                       include fastcgi_params;
               }
       }
       ```
   
 * The location block needs to use a regular expression because all the files (stylesheets,
   scripts and images) need to be redirected too. I was getting a 404 error with
   your code. The HTML loads correctly, but the resources don’t. That little tilde
   makes the difference 😀
 *  [Pothi Kalimuthu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pothi/)
 * (@pothi)
 * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nested-wordpress-installations-using-nginx/#post-3873053)
 * Thanks for the tip on tilde.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Nested WordPress installations using Nginx’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [nginx](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/nginx/)
 * [subfolder](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/subfolder/)

 * In: [Localhost Installs](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/localhost-installs/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Pothi Kalimuthu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pothi/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/nested-wordpress-installations-using-nginx/#post-3873053)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics