Serving Large Files Through Nginx via Rails 2.3 Using x-sendfile
The main idea: all your controller does is to set the nginx x-accel-redirect header. Once your controller method returns (which will be very fast), nginx will look at the header your Rails app set. If x-accel-redirect is set, then nginx serves the static file.
Your controller will look something like:
def show @attachment = Attachment.find(params[:id]) # Do anything else you need for authentication, etc. head(:x_accel_redirect => '/files/' + @attachment.filename, :content_type => @attachment.content_type, :content_disposition => "attachment; filename=\"#{@attachment.filename}\"") end This alone won't do the trick. You need to also tell nginx about the files located at $RAILS_ROOT/files. Add this to the end of your nginx config inside the server block:
location /files { root /path/to/rails_app; internal; }Put the static file into $RAILS_ROOT/files and it should work. No need for plugins or monkeypatching Tested with Rails 2.3.2 and 2.3.14.