Set Nginx redirect rule priority - redirect

Question

I have nginx+php-fpm and some rewrite rules for sef-urls.
The problem is that all my custom redirects/rewrites are ignored and request going to php script instead redirecting.
Part for sef-links:
if ($request_filename !~ ".(png|gif|ico|swf|jpe?g|js|css)$"){
set $rule_0 1$rule_0;
}
if (!-f $request_filename){
set $rule_0 2$rule_0;
}
if (!-d $request_filename){
set $rule_0 3$rule_0;
}
if ($rule_0 = "321"){
rewrite /. /index.php?sef_rewrite=1 last;
}
And I want to do that redirect:
location = /first.html {
return 301 /second.html;
}

Answer 1

You need to thing in terms of nginx's locations and rules. Then it will be much easier to write proper config. Try this one:
location / {
# replacement for last three `if`s
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?sef_rewrite=1;
}
# here is you redirect
location = /first.html {
return 301 /second.html;
}
# this is replacement for first `if`
location ~ \.(png|gif|ico|swf|jpe?g|js|css)$ {
# serve static files
}
# I'm sure you have this block somewhere
location ~ \.php$ {
# serve php
}
Also these articles worth to read them:
http://wiki.nginx.org/Pitfalls
http://wiki.nginx.org/IfIsEvil