Mass redirect using Nginx map file

Sometimes after upgrading or migrating an application you still need to keep old links working. A simple way to handle this in Nginx is to use a map file and redirect the requests to their new locations. If you are using HAProxy, you can find a similar example here: Haproxy.

This approach is useful when you have many URLs to redirect and don’t want to clutter the main configuration with dozens (or hundreds) of rewrite rules.

Virtual Host Configuration

map_hash_bucket_size 256;
map $request_uri $new_uri {
  include /etc/nginx/conf.d/redirects.map;
}

server {
  listen 80;
  ...
  if ($new_uri) {
    return 302 $new_uri;
  }
  ...
  location / {
  ...
}

Redirect MAP

#cat /etc/nginx/conf.d/redirects.map
/old1/link1    https://domain.com/1234;
/old2/link2    https://domain.com/12345;
...

Human Logic, AI Syntax... Note on Content: I'm a Systems Engineer, not a native English writer. To ensure my technical ideas are clear and accessible, I use AI tools to polish the grammar and style. The workflow is simple: I provide the logic, the code, and the real-world experience. The AI handles the "English-to-Human" translation layer. If you find a bug, that's on me. If you find a perfectly placed comma, that's probably the AI.