nginx 404 expires

location ~* \.(ico|css|js|gif|jpg|png)$ {
> expires 7d;
> }
> If I add this to my server conf it will cause all those requests
> to fail with a 404..I'm feeling silly for missing this, and I
> know it's probably very easy to fix...but how? :)

Most likely you have something like this:

root /path/to/nowhere;

location / {
root /path/to/root;
}

Adding

location ~* \.(ico|css|js|gif|jpg|png)$ {
expires 7d;
}

results in these files being searched in nowhere. The reason is
simple: nginx uses configuration in "location ~* \.(...)$" which
has no root explicitly set, and therefore root is inherited from
server/http level (or compiled-in default).