Using Pure Blog With Other Server Configurations

Pure Blog ships with a .htaccess file that handles URL routing on Apache, so it works out of the box on most standard shared hosting. If your host uses a different web server, you’ll need to configure routing manually using the instructions below.

Nginx

Add the following to your server block configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /path/to/pureblog;
    index index.php;

    # --- Front controller -------------------------------------------------
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    # --- Pretty sitemap ---------------------------------------------------
    rewrite ^/sitemap\.xml$ /sitemap.php last;

    # --- Block sensitive paths --------------------------------------------
    location ~ ^/(data|content/autosaves|content/layouts)/ {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~ \.md$ {
        deny all;
    }

    # --- Block PHP execution in content/ ----------------------------------
    # Must be placed above the general PHP block to intercept uploaded files
    location ~* ^/content/.*\.php[0-9]?$ {
        deny all;
    }

    # --- PHP processor ----------------------------------------------------
    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    # --- Static asset caching ---------------------------------------------
    location ~* \.(woff|woff2|ttf)$ {
        expires 3m;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }

    location ~* \.(css|js|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|svg|webp|ico)$ {
        expires 1m;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }
}

Replace yourdomain.com with your domain, /path/to/pureblog with the path to your Pure Blog installation, and unix:/var/run/php/php-fpm.sock with the correct PHP-FPM socket path for your server.

Caddy

Add the following to your Caddyfile:

yourdomain.com {
	root * /path/to/pureblog

	# --- Front controller -------------------------------------------------
	# Serve existing files and directories, send everything else to index.php.
	# php_fastcgi already does this internally, so no explicit try_files is needed.
	# Adjust the socket path or use 127.0.0.1:9000 for a TCP pool.
	php_fastcgi unix//var/run/php/php-fpm.sock
	file_server

	# --- Pretty sitemap ---------------------------------------------------
	# Rewrite sitemap.xml to sitemap.php
	rewrite /sitemap.xml /sitemap.php

	# --- Block sensitive paths --------------------------------------------
	# Prevent access to runtime state, draft autosaves, templates, and raw Markdown posts
	@blocked path /data/* /content/autosaves/* /content/layouts/* *.md
	handle @blocked {
		error 403
	}

	# Prevent execution of any uploaded PHP files under the content directory
	@content_php {
		path /content/*
		path_regexp \.(php[0-9]?|phtml)$
	}
	handle @content_php {
		error 403
	}

	# --- Static asset caching ---------------------------------------------
	@fonts path *.woff2 *.woff *.ttf
	header @fonts Cache-Control "public, max-age=7776000"

	@static path *.css *.js *.gif *.jpg *.jpeg *.png *.svg *.webp *.ico
	header @static Cache-Control "public, max-age=2592000"

	# --- Optional: restrict /admin by IP ----------------------------------
	# Add your public IP addresses to the remote_ip condition to restrict access
	# @admin_denied {
	#	path /admin /admin/*
	#	not remote_ip 11.22.33.44 55.66.77.88
	# }
	# handle @admin_denied {
	#	error 403
	# }
}

Replace yourdomain.com with your domain, /path/to/pureblog with the path to your Pure Blog installation, and /var/run/php/php-fpm.sock with the correct path to your PHP-FPM socket.

Special thanks to Jack Baty for providing this improved Caddy configuration.

LiteSpeed

LiteSpeed is largely Apache-compatible and should honour the .htaccess file that ships with Pure Blog without any additional configuration. If you find it isn’t working, check that .htaccess override is enabled in your LiteSpeed virtual host configuration.

If you’re using OpenLiteSpeed, add the following rewrite rules to your virtual host configuration:

rewrite  {
    enable                  1
    autoLoadHtaccess        1
}

Enabling autoLoadHtaccess will cause OpenLiteSpeed to read the included .htaccess file automatically.

IIS (Windows Server)

Create a web.config file in the Pure Blog root directory with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <!-- Block access to sensitive directories and files -->
                <rule name="Block sensitive paths" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(data/|content/autosaves/|content/layouts/|.*\.md$)" />
                    <action type="CustomResponse" statusCode="403" statusReason="Forbidden" statusDescription="Access is forbidden." />
                </rule>

                <!-- Prevent execution of uploaded PHP files -->
                <rule name="Block PHP in content" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^content/.*\.ph(p[0-9]?|tml)$" />
                    <action type="CustomResponse" statusCode="403" statusReason="Forbidden" statusDescription="Access is forbidden." />
                </rule>

                <!-- Pretty sitemap -->
                <rule name="Sitemap" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^sitemap\.xml$" />
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="sitemap.php" />
                </rule>

                <!-- Front controller -->
                <rule name="Pure Blog" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(.*)$" />
                    <conditions>
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

This requires the IIS URL Rewrite module to be installed, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft IIS website.

UberSpace

If you want to use PureBlog on Uberspace you have to add an additional line in .htaccess, right after the opening RewriteEngine On:

RewriteEngine On

# add if on uberspace.de
RewriteBase /

<<< REST OF .htaccess file >>>