esmi, you were partially correct.
i discovered that try_files line is designed to work well with wordpress’s permalinks functionality. with permalinks off, index.php ignores the request path and just serves the front page. strange behaviour. only with permamlinks enabled will wordpress return a ‘not found’ page when you enter something invalid.
i think without that line the default is equivalent to ‘try_files $uri;’, meaning that an actual object must exist at the requested path.
so, i believe the answer is: omit try_files or use ‘try_files $uri;’ without permalinks, but with permalinks enabled the wordpress index.php handles things correctly.
