Translating apache config to nginx

[Grant]

Roundcube uses some apache config to deny access to certain locations
and I'm trying to translate them to nginx.  The following seems to
work fine:

location ~ ^/?(\.git|\.tx|SQL|bin|config|logs|temp|tests|program\/(include|lib|localization|steps))
{
    deny all;
}

location ~ /?(README\.md|composer\.json-dist|composer\.json|package\.xml)$ {
    deny all;
}

But this causes a 403 during normal operation:

location ~ ^(?!installer)(\.?[^\.]+)$ {
    deny all;
}

Why is that happening?

- Grant