WordPress In Subdirectories Itself

Update: This article is updated for WordPress 3.5 multisite’s file-handling.

It is not possible to setup WordPress-Multisite with subdomains in a subdirectory. As soon as WordPress detects you are running another WordPress from example.com/folder rather than example.com/ – it will not ask you to choose between sub-directories and sub-domains.

But it is possible to setup a WordPress-Multisite with Subdirectories in a subdirectory itself. This is what I will be covering today. Most of the stuff is similar to my previous post.

Creating A WordPress Multisite Network:

If you haven’t done this yet, please check our guide here.

Nginx Configuration for WordPress-Multisite with Subdirectories in a subdirectory itself!

Below is the recommended Nginx configuration for WordPress Multisite using subdirectories setup.

Generally we replace example.com with your domain in our configurations. In this case, we will also replace wordpress with your folder/subdirectory name.

			server {
        server_name example.com ;

        access_log   /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
        error_log    /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log debug;

        root /var/www/example.com/htdocs ;
        index index.php;

        if (!-e $request_filename) {
                rewrite /wp-admin$ $scheme://$host$uri/ permanent;         
                rewrite ^/wordpress(/[^/]+)?(/wp-.*) /wordpress$2 last;      
                rewrite ^/wordpress(/[^/]+)?(/.*\.php)$ /wordpress$2 last;
        }

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

        location ~ \.php$ {
                try_files $uri /wordpress/index.php;
                include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
        }

        location ~* ^.+\.(ogg|ogv|svg|svgz|eot|otf|woff|mp4|ttf|rss|atom|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|ppt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf)$ {
                access_log off; log_not_found off; expires max;
        }

        location = /robots.txt { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
        location ~ /\. { deny  all; access_log off; log_not_found off; }
}
		
			
		

For Multisite Networks Created with WordPress 3.4 or older: Please use this article to improve static-file handling. It alone can improve overall performance by 10x.

In the next article, we will add support for WP Super Cache for the above Nginx config. Read the complete series here.

Must Read: Checklist For Perfect WordPress-Nginx Setup

Comments

himanshu

July 11, 2013

How can I serve new WordPress installs from subdirectories? for example, I want to set up example.com/member/wordpress1
examplec.com/member/wordpress2
examplec.com/member/wordpress3

I don’t want to use multi site feature at all, but install wordpress as a fully functional site in subdirectories.

Thanks in advance and all these tutorials.
Rahul Bansal

July 12, 2013
You can try something like…
```
  set $dir "";

  if ($request_uri ~ ^/([^/]*)/.*$ ) {
        set $dir1 /$1;
  }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/  $dir1/index.php?$args;
    }
```
This is what we are using on demo.rtcamp.com where we have separate wordpress in subdir.

As long as we add a new wordpress in top-level folder, above config can handle it automatically.
1. himanshu
  
  July 12, 2013
  Thanks but after implementing this config, I start getting errors -File not found on all page,post links, even on the main site. What am I doing wrong here?
  
  I want to install WP like this – mysite.com/member/WPinstall1 and not mysite.com/WPinstall1
  
  Thanks once again.
  
  Below is my complete config:
```
server {
        server_name mysite.com www.mysite.com;

    access_log   /var/log/nginx/mysite.com.access.log;
    error_log    /var/log/nginx/mysite.com.error.log;

    root /var/www/mysite.com/htdocs;
    index index.php;

    set $dir "";

    if ($request_uri ~ ^/([^/]*)/.*$ ) {
          set $dir1 /$1;
    }

    location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ $dir1/index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
           include fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
    }

    }
```
  1. Rahul Bansal
    
    July 13, 2013
    
    You need to tweak config. I pasted our config for reference.
    
    And please use support forum for https://rtcamp.com/support such queries.
wp_query

October 23, 2013

I have 2 wordpress installs on one domain, main.com, and main.com/multisite.
I got multisite working, but permalinks don’t work, I get 404 no matter what permalink structure I use (except default “p=1”). What could be the issue?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 23, 2013
  
  Can you share your config? (using http://pastebin.com/)
  1. wp_query
    
    October 23, 2013
    
    Here it is: http://pastebin.com/DcuB4r31. Thanks for looking into.
    1. Rahul Bansal
      
      October 23, 2013
      
      Can you also share error logs – /var/log/nginx/mysite.com.error.log ?
      
      Make sure you empty error log file and then produce erroneous behavior. After that send error log so I can see where things are going wrong.
    2. Rahul Bansal
      
      October 23, 2013
      
      Also install nginx-helper plugin – http://wordpress.org/plugins/nginx-helper/
      on your multisite setup.
      
      Activate it network-wide.
      
      Then go to a site, change permalink and check if permalink works after that.
      1. wp_query
        
        October 23, 2013
        
        I already had installed nginx helper, but I reinstalled it again, network activated, changed permalink structure to default, then to another, and I’m getting 404.
        Error log /var/log/nginx/mysite.com.error.log is empty, even after 404 error.
        
        Forgot to mention, once I click on permalink on multisite, Im redirected to 404 of main.com site, not multisite. But url stays like this: main.com/demo/multisite/hello-world/ (multisite is kept in url).
wp_query

October 24, 2013

Any ideas, something else I should try?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 24, 2013
  In location ~ \.php$ { block, replace following line:
```
try_files $uri /multisite/index.php;
```
  with
```
try_files $uri =404;
```
  Then turn on nginx debug log for error_log and send it over in another pastebin.
  For debug instructions – http://rtcamp.com/tutorials/nginx/debugging/
  1. wp_query
    
    October 24, 2013
    
    Right now I’m getting errors when Im starting nginx, and when I check nginx status it says not running but domain is loading…
    Here’s error log: http://pastebin.com/PkQ3ijSi
    And here’s updated nginx.conf: http://pastebin.com/UByz547E
    1. Rahul Bansal
      
      October 24, 2013
      
      You forgot semicolon in try_files $uri =404;
      
      For “(98: Address already in use)” error, follow – http://rtcamp.com/tutorials/nginx/troubleshooting/emerg-bind-failed-98-address-already-in-use/
      
      And please use support forum for support – http://rtcamp.com/groups/wordpress-nginx/forum/