A pull request was opened last week for adding web browser dark mode support for Nginx error pages. Unfortunate for those who prefer browsing in dark mode and then shocked when hitting Nginx-served 404 error pages or similar, the change has been rejected.
The pull request for the upstream Nginx web server was adding the meta “color-scheme” tag with the “light dark” value as a simple yet effective solution for handling native dark mode support with supported operating systems / web browsers. The pull request added that meta tag to each of the relevant Nginx error pages for all the standard HTTP error pages.
That pull request though was ultimately rejected today. The basis being that Nginx default error pages are meant to be simple and seemingly adding the extra tag is superfluous. In closing the merge request, it was recommended server administrators use the “error_page” directive and setup their own custom error pages if not liking Nginx’s default (non dark mode friendly) error pages.
