The module ngx_http_index_module processes requests ending with the slash character (‘/’). Such requests can also be processed by ngx_http_autoindex_module and ngx_http_random_index_module modules.

location / {
    index index.$geo.html index.html;
}

index index.html;

Defines files that will be used as an index. The file name can contain variables. Files are checked in the specified order. The last element of the list can be a file with an absolute path. Example:

index index.$geo.html index.0.html /index.html;

It should be noted that when using an index file, an internal redirect is made, and request can be processed in a different location. For example, with the following configuration:

location = / {
    index index.html;
}

location / {
    ...
}

a request of “/” will actually be processed in the second location as “/index.html”.