The usual code for forcing pdf files to download and not open in the browser is this:
location ~* /(.*\.pdf) {
types { application/octet-stream .pdf; }
default_type application/octet-stream;
}
Restart the nginx server with the command:
service nginx restart
It is best if the location directive is placed immediately after the server directive.
server {
server_name www.xyz.com;
return 301 http://xyz.com$request_uri;
location ~* /(.*\.pdf) {
types { application/octet-stream .pdf; }
default_type application/octet-stream;
}
} If a location directive has been created for a folder (this is required for wordpress permalinks to work), the force pdf directive should be added there:
location /folder {
try_files $uri $uri/ /news/index.php?q=$uri$is_args$args;
types { application/octet-stream .pdf; }
default_type application/octet-stream;
}Basically, it is a hit-and-miss approach. Try various things till it works.
Update: By trial and error, I discovered that placing the directive after the “listen 80” port works.
server {
listen 80;
location ~* /(.*\.pdf) {
types { application/octet-stream .pdf; }
default_type application/octet-stream;
}
// The rest of the directive continues