i really need help here. Sitting for some time now and dont figured it out. I want to realize a very simple task - rewrite a non-existent php file to another existant php file with all arguments like: this http://example.com/nonexistent.php?url=google.com to -> http://example.com/existent.php?url=google.com I tried something like this: rewrite ^/nonexistent.php /existent.php; Which dont works (File not found). But redirect a non-existent html file to a php file like this: rewrite ^/nonexistent.html /existent.php; works. I dont want to rewrite a html file, but this is still a confusing behaviour. Therefore it tried also something like this (and some variations): rewrite ^/nonexistent.php?url=^(.*)$ /existent.php?url=$1; which is also not working. (Maybe the syntax is bad) Any help here? It would be very nice!