[wp-hackers] cheap 404 serving

["Matthias P. Würfl"]

hi.

404s are expensive. There are several circumstances where a lot of 
avoidable 404-errors must be generated by wordpress:

- bots trying to find security flaws
- disappeared static files (images)
- ...

All the rewrite-rules i can find send every request that cannot be 
served as static content to wordpress. It would be cheaper to check the 
request if handeling by wordpress makes sense at all before wordpress is 
bootstrapped.

- URL ends on ".html" or "/"
- Accept-header contatins "text/html"
- ... (more?)

I serve static content with Nginx, i cache the results of 
fastcgi-requests, so i'm kinda prepared for accidential DOS-attacks (cat 
sitting on [F5] key) in these cases, but these 404 errors are still 
unsolved.

Are there any ready-to-use recipes to serve 404 errors cheaper? For 
Nginx? :-)

Matthias