nginx(8) System Manager's Manual nginx(8)
NAME
nginx - HTTP and reverse proxy server, mail proxy server
SYNOPSIS
nginx [-?hqTtVv] [-c file] [-e file] [-g directives] [-p prefix]
[-s signal]
DESCRIPTION
nginx (pronounced "engine x") is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, a mail
proxy server, and a generic TCP/UDP proxy server. It is known for its
high performance, stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and
low resource consumption.
The options are as follows:
-?, -h Print help.
-c file Use an alternative configuration file.
-e file Use an alternative error log file. Special value
stderr indicates that the standard error output
should be used.
-g directives Set global configuration directives. See EXAMPLES
for details.
-p prefix Set the prefix path. The default value is
%%PREFIX%%.
-q Suppress non-error messages during configuration
testing.
-s signal Send a signal to the master process. The argument
signal can be one of: stop, quit, reopen, reload.
The following table shows the corresponding system
signals:
stop SIGTERM
quit SIGQUIT
reopen SIGUSR1
reload SIGHUP
-T Same as -t, but additionally dump configuration
files to standard output.
-t Do not run, just test the configuration file. nginx
checks the configuration file syntax and then tries
to open files referenced in the configuration file,
including binding to configured listen addresses.
-V Print the nginx version, compiler version, and
configure script parameters.
-v Print the nginx version.
SIGNALS
The master process of nginx can handle the following signals:
SIGINT, SIGTERM Shut down quickly.
SIGHUP Reload configuration, start the new worker process
with a new configuration, and gracefully shut down
old worker processes.
SIGQUIT Shut down gracefully.
SIGUSR1 Reopen log files.
SIGUSR2 Upgrade the nginx executable on the fly.
SIGWINCH Shut down worker processes gracefully.
While there is no need to explicitly control worker processes normally,
they support some signals too:
SIGTERM Shut down quickly.
SIGQUIT Shut down gracefully.
SIGUSR1 Reopen log files.
DEBUGGING LOG
To enable a debugging log, reconfigure nginx to build with debugging:
./configure --with-debug ...
and then set the debug level of the error_log:
error_log /path/to/log debug;
It is also possible to enable the debugging for a particular IP address:
events {
debug_connection 127.0.0.1;
}
ENVIRONMENT
The NGINX environment variable is used internally by nginx and should not
be set directly by the user.
FILES
%%PID_PATH%%
Contains the process ID of nginx. The contents of this file are
not sensitive, so it can be world-readable.
%%CONF_PATH%%
The main configuration file.
%%ERROR_LOG_PATH%%
Error log file.
EXIT STATUS
Exit status is 0 on success, or 1 if the command fails.
EXAMPLES
Test configuration file ~/mynginx.conf with global directives for PID and
quantity of worker processes:
nginx -t -c ~/mynginx.conf \
-g "pid /opt/local/var/run/nginx/nginx.pid/; worker_processes 2;"
SEE ALSO
Documentation at http://nginx.org/en/docs/.
For questions and technical support, please refer to
http://nginx.org/en/support.html.
HISTORY
Development of nginx started in 2002, with the first public release on
October 4, 2004.
AUTHORS
Igor Sysoev <igor@sysoev.ru>.
This manual page was originally written by Sergey A. Osokin
<osa@FreeBSD.org.ru> as a result of compiling many nginx documents from
all over the world.
macOS 15.7 January 21, 2026 macOS 15.7
nginx 1.29.5 - Generated Wed Feb 4 18:46:32 CST 2026