Vladimir Kolesnikov

The plugin solves two problems:
<ol>
<li>When WordPress detects that FastCGI PHP SAPI is in use, it 
<a href="http://blog.sjinks.pro/wordpress/510-wordpress-fastcgi-and-301-redirect/" rel="nofollow ugc">disregards the redirect status code</a> 
passed to <code>wp_redirect</code>. Thus, all 301 redrects become 302 redirects 
which may not be good for SEO. The plugin overrides <code>wp_redirect</code> when it detects 
that nginx is used.</li>
<li>When WordPress detects that <code>mod_rewrite</code> is not loaded (which is the case for nginx as 
it does not load any Apache modules) it falls back to <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#PATHINFO:_.22Almost_Pretty.22" rel="nofollow ugc">PATHINFO permalinks</a> 
in Permalink Settings page. nginx itself has built-in support for URL rewriting and does not need 
PATHINFO permalinks. Thus, when the plugin detects that nginx is used, it makes WordPress think 
that <code>mod_rewrite</code> is loaded and it is OK to use pretty permalinks.</li>
</ol>
The plugin does not require any configuration. It just does its work. 
You won’t notice it — install and forget.
WARNING: nginx must be configured properly to support permalinks.
<h3>nginx Configuration</h3>
nginx 0.7.32 and higher:
<pre><code>server {
 server_name mysite.com;

 root /path/to/blog;

 index index.php;

 error_page 404 = @wordpress;
 log_not_found off;

 location ^~ /files/ {
 rewrite /files/(.+) /wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 last;
 }

 location @wordpress {
 fastcgi_pass ...;
 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/index.php;
 include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /index.php;
 }

 location ~ \.php$ {
 try_files $uri @wordpress;
 fastcgi_index index.php;
 fastcgi_pass ...;
 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
 include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
 }

 location ^~ /blogs.dir/ {
 internal;
 root /path/to/blog/wp-content;
 }
}
</code></pre>
Older versions:
<pre><code>server {
 server_name mysite.com;

 root /path/to/blog;

 index index.php;

 log_not_found off;
 error_page 404 = @wordpress;

 location ^~ /files/ {
 rewrite /files/(.+) /wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 last;
 }

 location @wordpress {
 fastcgi_pass ...;
 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/index.php;
 include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /index.php;
 }

 location ~ \.php$ {
 if (!-e $request_filename) {
 rewrite ^(.+)$ /index.php break;
 break;
 }

 fastcgi_index index.php;
 fastcgi_pass ...;
 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
 include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
 }

 location ^~ /blogs.dir/ {
 internal;
 root /path/to/blog/wp-content;
 }
}
</code></pre>
Of course, do not forget to replace <code>...</code> in <code>fastcgi_pass</code> with the address/socket 
php-cgi is listening on and replace /path/to/blog with the actual path.
Also please note that the path in <code>SCRIPT_NAME</code> should be relative to the <code>DOCUMENT_ROOT</code> (<code>root</code> directive). 
Thus, if your WordPress blog resides in <code>http://example.com/blog/</code>, <code>root</code> is set to <code>/path.to/example.com</code>, 
 SCRIPT_NAME in <code>location @wordpress</code> will be <code>/blog/index.php</code>.
<a href="http://blog.sjinks.pro/wordpress/874-wpms-nginx-accel-redirect/" rel="nofollow ugc">Multi-Site Configuration</a>: the above configs work perfectly with WordPress MultiSite. To make downloads faster, consider adding this line to <code>wp-config.php</code>:
<pre><code>define('WPMU_ACCEL_REDIRECT', true);
</code></pre>
Need help with configuring nginx? Contact me: vkolesnikov at odesk dot com, I will try to help you.

nginx Compatibility

The plugin makes WordPress more friendly to nginx.

Beautiful taxonomy filters vs nginx Compatibility