nginx basics

installation

docker pull nginx
docker container run -it -p 80:80 --name <container name> nginx bash

# or via any other ways appropriate to OS

verify installation

# version check
nginx -v

# running processes
ps -ef | grep nginx
# will give at least one master process and one worker process

# http request
curl localhost 
# will return a default index.html in `usr/share/html/`

folders and files

• /etc/nginx/: default configuration root folder
• /etc/nginx/nginx.conf: default configuration entry point that sets up global settings.
• /etc/conf.d/:
  • contain HTTP server configuration file
  • .conf files in this folder are included in top-level http block of /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  • Serve as same folder as site-enabled and site-available, which was deprecated.
• /var/lib/nginx/: contain access.log and error.log
• usr/share/html/: default virtual host folder

  root@6cc1a78f70a2:/usr/share/nginx/html$ tree
  .
  |-- 50x.html
  `-- index.html

• recommended not to use for real sites but for testing purposes.

commands

nginx -h
nginx -v
nginx -V
nginx -t # test configuration
nginx -T # test configuration + print valicated configs.
nginx -s <stop|quit|reopen|reload> # send signal to master

• An examplary chain of commands: modify configuration > nginx -t to verify > nginx -s reload

REFERENCES

• NGINX Cookbook by Derek DeJonghe