Automatic nginx virtual subdomains with sub-folders or sub-directories

example.nginx

# Automatic nginx virtual subdomains with sub-folders or sub-directories
#
# Since the original source where I found this code is now offline, I have decided to mirror it here.
# All credit goes to: http://web.archive.org/web/20150307193208/http://www.messaliberty.com/2010/10/automatic-nginx-virtual-subdomains-with-sub-folders-or-sub-directories
#
# Description: In my web root directory I wanted create a folder called photos, and another called
# music using a sftp program. Without manually going back to the config file or to the shell I like to
# be able to access them at photos.nginxdomain.com and music.nginxdomain.com. That is what this config does.

# Redirect visitors from http://nginxdomain.com/ to http://www.nginxdomain.com/
 server {
	listen 80;
	server_name nginxdomain.com; 
	rewrite ^/(.*) http://www.nginxdomain.com/$1 permanent;
}

# Serve http://www.nginxdomain.com/
server {
	listen	80;
	server_name www.nginxdomain.com;
	root /home/domains/nginxdomain.com/public;
}	

# Automatically create subdomains based on directory existence.
server {
	listen 80; 
	server_name   ~^(.*)\.nginxdomain\.com$; 
	
	# If a directory doesn't exist...
	if (!-d /home/domains/nginxdomain.com/public/$1) {
	
		# If a client requests a subdomain but the server does not have a folder to serve, redirect back to the main site.
		rewrite . http://www.nginxdomain.com/ redirect;
		
	}
    
	# Sets the correct root
	root /home/domains/nginxdomain.com/public/$1;

}

nginx.conf

#user http;
worker_processes 1;

#error_log  logs/error.log;
#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
#error_log  logs/error.log  info;

#pid        logs/nginx.pid;


# Load all installed modules
include modules.d/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}


http {
    include mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    # HTTPS server
    #
    server {
        listen 443 ssl;
        server_name ~^(.*)\.dev\.localhost$;

        ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/_wildcard.dev.localhost.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/_wildcard.dev.localhost-key.pem;

        # ssl_session_cache    shared:SSL:1m;
        # ssl_session_timeout  5m;
        #
        # ssl_ciphers  HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
        # ssl_prefer_server_ciphers  on;

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://localhost:$1;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        }
    }

}