[SOLVED] Nginx not redirecting properly

Issue

I'm a bit confused, I really thought this was going to be a simple 5 minute task, but no. I followed the documentation for a redirect, but I can't get it working properly, it is just appending multiples of the new url (not sure how many, but I counted at least 10 off the edge of the url bar) to the original one. Here is my server block config:

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name old.i.p.address;
        return 301 new.i.p.address/redirect_page/;

        location ~ /si/home/0/ {
                 return 301 /si/home/;
                 }

        location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
        location /static {
                      alias /home/rob/pcc_django/staticfiles/;
                      }

        location / {
                 proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                 proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                 proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                 proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                 proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
        }
    }

Apologies if indentation is wrong, it is formatted correctly on my machine, I haven't worked out how to keep formatting in code blocks on this site correctly.

I have tried multiple versions with and without "http://" at the start of the new ip address, I've tried it with and without the "/homepage" also. I've also tried to use "rewrite" as initially I just wanted a permanent redirect, but this was the only iteration that would allow ngingx server to start and it's giving strange results in the url bar:

old.i.p.address/homepage/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/new.i.p.address/redirect_page/...etc ad infinitum

How can I fix this please?

Solution

The new.i.p.address/redirect_page/ string is treated by browser as relative URI on the same server giving you that endless loop with the concatenation of new.i.p.address/redirect_page/ part on every iteration. For example, if you'd had a return 301 /new.i.p.address/redirect_page/; rule, that string would be treated as absolute URI giving you the same address on every iteration. The only right way is to use http:// (or https://) prefix. As already said by @emptyhua, HTTP 301 permanent redirects are cached by the browsers so you should clear your cache or try from the incognito window.

Answered By - Ivan Shatsky