by Matteo Scaramuccia.
Hi Greg,
that is called PATH_INFO, which Moodle calls slasharguments and supporting slasharguments is recommended by Moodle by default unless you configure Moodle to disable its usage (Site Administration > Site administration > Server> HTTP).
That's the reason why for location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) { and fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$; .
Please, remember that it will be required some day (MDL-49114) and it is actually required by some Activities like SCORM.
HTH,
Matteo