I'm not sure if this should be asked here or on ServerFault, but here it goes...

I am trying to get started on nginx with PHP-FPM, but I noticed that the server block setup I currently have (gathered from several guides including the nginx Pitfalls wiki page) produces $_SERVER variables that are different from what I'm used to seeing in Apache setups. After spending the last evening trying to "fix" this, I decided to install Apache on my local computer and gather the variables that I'm interested in under different conditions so that I could try and mimic them on nginx.

The Apache setup I've on my computer has only one mod_rewrite rule:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

And these are the values I get for different request URIs (left is Apache, right is nginx):

• localhost/ - http://www.mergely.com/GnzBHRV1/
• localhost/foo/bar/baz/?foo=bar - http://www.mergely.com/VwsT8oTf/
• localhost/index.php/foo/bar/baz/?foo=bar - http://www.mergely.com/VGEFehfT/

What configuration directives would allow me to get similar values on requests handled by nginx?

My current configuration in nginx is:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name default;
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certificates/dummy.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certificates/dummy.key;

    root /var/www/default/html;
    index index.php index.html;
    autoindex on;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
    }

    location ~ /(?:favicon[.]ico|robots[.]txt)$ {
        log_not_found off;
    }

    location ~* [.]php {
        #try_files $uri =404;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+[.]php)(/.+)$;
    }

    location ~* [.]ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

And my fastcgi_params file looks like this:

fastcgi_param    PATH_INFO            $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param    PATH_TRANSLATED      $document_root$fastcgi_path_info;

fastcgi_param    QUERY_STRING         $query_string;
fastcgi_param    REQUEST_METHOD       $request_method;
fastcgi_param    CONTENT_TYPE         $content_type;
fastcgi_param    CONTENT_LENGTH       $content_length;

fastcgi_param    SCRIPT_NAME          $fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param    SCRIPT_FILENAME      $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param    REQUEST_URI          $request_uri;
fastcgi_param    DOCUMENT_URI         $document_uri;
fastcgi_param    DOCUMENT_ROOT        $document_root;
fastcgi_param    SERVER_PROTOCOL      $server_protocol;

fastcgi_param    GATEWAY_INTERFACE    CGI/1.1;
fastcgi_param    SERVER_SOFTWARE      nginx/$nginx_version;

fastcgi_param    REMOTE_ADDR          $remote_addr;
fastcgi_param    REMOTE_PORT          $remote_port;
fastcgi_param    SERVER_ADDR          $server_addr;
fastcgi_param    SERVER_PORT          $server_port;
fastcgi_param    SERVER_NAME          $server_name;

fastcgi_param    HTTPS                $https;

I know that the try_files $uri =404; directive is commented and that it is a security vulnerability but, if I uncomment it, the third request (localhost/index.php/foo/bar/baz/?foo=bar) will return a 404.

It's also worth noting that my PHP cgi.fix_pathinfo in On (contrary to what some of the guides recommend), if I try to set it to Off, I'm presented with a "Access denied." message on every PHP request.

I'm running PHP 5.4.8 and nginx/1.1.19. I don't know what else to try... Help?