access log control while maintaining internal redirection to WordPress

[Jan-Philip Gehrcke]

Hello!

I created a WordPress page with permalink 
http://domain.tld/health_status for WordPress health monitoring. It's 
accessed frequently, so I don't want these requests to appear in my 
access log.

My basic "rewrite rule" for all WordPress pages is:

location / {
     try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$args;
}

Now, on the same level, I tried

location /health_status {
     access_log off;
     #try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$args;
     }

 From the nginx location documentation: "Literal strings match the 
beginning portion of the query - the most specific match will be used"

/health_status is more specific than /, so this block takes action when 
I request http://domain.tld/health_status.

With the `try_files` line commented out (as above), the request does not 
show up in the access log, hurray, but obviously I just get a 404 error, 
because nginx does not redirect this request to WordPress.

With the `try_files` line being active, an internal redirect to 
WordPress' index.php takes place and the /health_status WordPress page 
is shown in the browser. However, after the internal redirect the 
location /health_status block is not in action anymore and the request 
ends up in the access log.

How to solve this problem cleanly? Do I now have to add another block 
matching the actual /index.php?q=healthstatuswhatever request that takes 
place after the internal redirect?

Thanks!

Jan-Philip