WP Super cache

easyengine (ee) note: If you are using easyengine, you can accomplish everything in this article using following commands:

ee site create example.com --wpsc

Assumption:

  1. You already installed PHP, MySQL, Nginx & Postfix
  2. You already installed a fresh WordPress or moved an existing WordPress to current server

Based on these assumptions, we will jump to directly a WordPress-Nginx configuration part.

Standard WordPress-Nginx configuration with WP Super cache support:

As you are getting into Nginx, I hope you don’t need my help with configuring WP Super Cache plugin.

Still, make sure you are using “Use mod_rewrite to serve cache files. (Recommended)” option under “Advanced” tab.

Following configuration supports:

  1. Static Page Caching using Disk
  2. Direct browser cache for static content like images, js, css, etc
server {
    server_name example.com www.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;

    set $cache_uri $request_uri;

    # POST requests and urls with a query string should always go to PHP
    if ($request_method = POST) {
        set $cache_uri 'null cache';
    }   
    if ($query_string != "") {
        set $cache_uri 'null cache';
    }   

    # Don't cache uris containing the following segments
    if ($request_uri ~* "(/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|/wp-(app|cron|login|register|mail).php|wp-.*.php|/feed/|index.php|wp-comments-popup.php|wp-links-opml.php|wp-locations.php|sitemap(_index)?.xml|[a-z0-9_-]+-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml)") {
        set $cache_uri 'null cache';
    }   

    # Don't use the cache for logged in users or recent commenters
    if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author|wordpress_[a-f0-9]+|wp-postpass|wordpress_logged_in") {
        set $cache_uri 'null cache';
    }

    # Use cached or actual file if they exists, otherwise pass request to WordPress
    location / {
        try_files /wp-content/cache/supercache/$http_host/$cache_uri/index.html $uri $uri/ /index.php ;
    }    

    location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { log_not_found off; access_log off; }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404; 
        include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    }

    # Cache static files for as long as possible
    location ~* .(ogg|ogv|svg|svgz|eot|otf|woff|mp4|ttf|css|rss|atom|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|ppt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf)$ {
        expires max; log_not_found off; access_log off;
    }
}

Note:

To simplify configuration, I haven’t added Mobile user agent checks. We are in the iPhone era where finally phones are getting smart. So there is no need to create separate mobile site, when you can cater to today’s iPhone/Android devices using responsive designs.

Don’t Forget:

Always test your Nginx configuration and then reload it. All changes to Nginx config must be followed with these commands:

nginx -t && service nginx reload

Important Note:

WP Super Cache caching will conflict with plugins that uses query vars. WooCommerce is an example known plugin known to work with above configuration. Reason is following line: 

try_files /wp-content/cache/supercache/$http_host/$cache_uri/index.html $uri $uri/ /index.php ;

It doesn’t passes $args to /index.php. If you set last try_files argument to /index.php?$args as with other WordPress-Nginx configuration, WP Super Cache, itself will break!

Must Read:

12 responses to “WP Super cache”

  3. Can you please write a guide for the people who are not familiar with Linux and command line? Is there any tutorial for installing Nginx using cPanel? I am using wp super cache and i want to add Nginx to my website but i don’t know how to install Nginx. I am looking for a tutorial to install it through cPanel.

  4. Thanks. I am very impressed with the ease and speed at which the nginx site was enabled with wp-super cache. Even the permalinks work without any change to the configuration. Two issues:

    (i) Can you pl indicate the configuration changes required if wordpress is installed in a folder and not in the root.

    (ii) the domain does not resolve to www. While domain.com works, http://www.domain.com does not. I think it requires a vhost change.

  5. My point on the www domain not resolving has nothing to do with the vhost config because it already includes that. It has to be set up at the domain registrar (namecheap). I did that and everything works well now.

    I think having the wordpress in a folder requires a slight modification to the configuration. I am experimenting with that at the moment and shall revert.

  6. hello sir thanks for the tips
    i have install nginx and add the configuration above and active my wp super cache plugin (im using super cache config same as hostgator community suggestion)
    after all done, i still view this message on top admin
    –Mod rewrite may not be installed!

    It appears that mod_rewrite is not installed. Sometimes this check isn’t 100% reliable, especially if you are not using Apache. Please verify that the mod_rewrite module is loaded. It is required for serving Super Cache static files. You will still be able to use legacy or PHP modes.
    Warning! Garbage collection is not scheduled!

    Garbage collection by this plugin
    —

    should i ignrore those message ? because i already check caching method on your post here https://rtcamp.com/wordpress-nginx/tutorials/checklist/
    and i see the time stamp are remain the same

    how about garbage collection ? do i need to cleanup on sheceduler time ?

    thank you