Nginx Configuration

Total CMS ships with .htaccess files for Apache. If you are running Nginx, you will need to add equivalent configuration to your Nginx server block. Nginx does not read .htaccess files.

How Total CMS Routing Works

Total CMS uses two layers of URL rewriting:

1. Root rewrite — All requests to the tcms/ directory are routed into the public/ subdirectory
2. Front controller — Any request that does not match a real file or directory inside public/ is handled by index.php
3. Data protection — The tcms-data/ directory must be blocked from direct access

Standalone Installation

If Total CMS is installed at the document root (or you can set the Nginx root to the public/ directory directly):

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;
  root /var/www/totalcms/public;
  index index.php;

  # Block direct access to tcms-data
  location ~* /tcms-data/ {
    deny all;
    return 403;
  }

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

  # PHP-FPM
  location ~ \.php$ {
    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;
  }

  # Deny access to dotfiles (.htaccess, .env, etc.)
  location ~ /\. {
    deny all;
  }
}

Subdirectory Installation (Stacks)

When Total CMS is installed inside a subdirectory such as /rw_common/plugins/stacks/tcms/, the configuration needs to account for the path prefix:

# Block direct access to tcms-data
location ~* /tcms-data/ {
  deny all;
  return 403;
}

# Route requests into the public/ subdirectory and use front controller
location /rw_common/plugins/stacks/tcms/ {
  try_files $uri $uri/ /rw_common/plugins/stacks/tcms/public/$uri /rw_common/plugins/stacks/tcms/public/index.php?$query_string;
}

# PHP-FPM for Total CMS
location ~ /rw_common/plugins/stacks/tcms/.*\.php$ {
  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;
}

Adjust the path to match your actual installation directory.

PHP-FPM Socket

The fastcgi_pass directive must point to your PHP-FPM socket or TCP address. Common values:

Distribution	Socket Path
Ubuntu/Debian	unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock
CentOS/RHEL	unix:/var/run/php-fpm/www.sock
macOS (Homebrew)	unix:/opt/homebrew/var/run/php-fpm.sock
TCP (any)	127.0.0.1:9000

Check your PHP-FPM pool configuration (www.conf) for the exact listen value.

Session Configuration

On Apache, Total CMS can set session lifetime via .htaccess. On Nginx, configure this in your PHP-FPM pool (www.conf) or php.ini instead:

; Set session timeout to 24 hours (matches Total CMS default)
php_admin_value[session.gc_maxlifetime] = 86400

Verifying Your Configuration

After updating your Nginx configuration:

1. Test the configuration: nginx -t
2. Reload Nginx: systemctl reload nginx
3. Navigate to your Total CMS admin URL (e.g., example.com/tcms/admin)
4. If you see a 404, double-check the try_files directive and ensure it falls back to index.php
5. If you see a 502, verify your PHP-FPM socket path is correct and that PHP-FPM is running