Why is try_files important for React Router?
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html tells Nginx to fall back to index.html for any path that doesn't match a static file. Without this, navigating directly to /profile or /connections returns 404 because Nginx looks for a physical file at that path.
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More FAQs in Deploying a React App to EC2 with Nginx Serving the Frontend from the Same Server
Build the React app (npm run build), transfer the dist/ or build/ directory to EC2, configure Nginx with root pointing to the build directory and try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html for client-side routing. Proxy /api/ requests to the Node.js backend on port 3000.
Add a location block matching file extensions (js, css, png, jpg, etc.) with expires 1y and Cache-Control 'public, immutable'. React build files have hashed names, so they can be cached aggressively the hash changes when content changes.
Build the new version (npm run build), transfer the files to EC2 via SCP, or git pull and rebuild on EC2. Nginx serves the new files immediately no restart needed. The hashed file names ensure browsers fetch the new versions.
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