unknown directive "if" in /usr/local/nginx/nginx.conf

[johndesp]

Igor,

Thanks.  My ultimate goal is to have the flexibility to inspect the incoming uri and make decisions as to what backend host to send the request to.

For instance,

I might want

Incoming URI  /johndesp/( {1})  ----> proxy_pass  http://host1/johndesp/whatever

Incoming URI  /johndesp/([0-9] {1})  ----> proxy_pass  http://host1/johndesp/whenever

example

/johndesp/b    ---------------- proxy_pass  http://host1:8080/johndesp/whatever             * notice this is not  http://host1:8080/johndesp/whatever/b

likewise I would want the following:

johndesp/5    ---------------- proxy_pass  http://host2:8080/johndesp/whenever           * notice this is not  http://host1:8080/johndesp/whatever

I tried to use the following..however, I did not get the desired result:

location "~* ^/johndesp/whatever/( {1}"{
proxy_pass http://host1:8080/johndesp/whatever;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_redirect off;
}

but I get this error:
: the using of the regex " ^/johndesp/whatever/( {1}" requires PCRE library in /usr/local/nginx/nginx.conf:43

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,25320,25356#msg-25356