Nginx HTTP Server

Nginx HTTP Server

Adopt Nginx for your web applications to make the most of your infrastructure and serve pages faster than ever

element Nedelcu

[

] PUBLISHING

~men~e~eri~c::i~lI~dC e

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1: Preparing your Work Environment Setting up a terminal emulator Finding and downloading PuTTY Creating a session Working with PuTTY and the shell Basic shell commands File and directory management User and group management Superuser account User accounts Group management

Programs and processes Starting an application System services Process management

Discovering the Linux filesystem Directory structure Special files and devices Device types Pseudo devices Mounting a storage device

Files and inodes EXT3 filesystem specifications Filenames Inodes Atime. ctime, and mtime Symbolic and hard links

File manipulation Reading a file

1 7 7 8 8

10 11

11 15 15 15 17

18 18 19 20

22 22 25 25

26 27

28 29 29 29 30 31

32 33

Table of Contents 34

Editing a file Compression and archiving

35

37

System administration tools

37

Running a command as Superuser

37 38

Su command Sudo command

System verification and maintenance Disk Free Disk Usage Free memory

39 39 39

40

40

Software packages Package managers Downloading and installing packages manually Building from source

Files and permissions

40 41

42 43 43 43

Understanding file permissions Directory permissions Octal representation Changing permissions Changing ownership and group

44 44 45

Summary Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing Nginx Setting up the prerequisites GCC - GNU Compiler Collection PCRE library zlib library OpenSSL

46

47 47 48

49 50 50

Downloading Nginx

51 51

Websites and resources Version branches Features Downloading and extracting

52 53

54

Configure options

55

The easy way Path options Prerequisites options Module options

55

56 58

59 59 60 61

Modules enabled by default Modules disabled by default

Miscellaneous options Configuration examples

62 63 63 64

About the prefix switch Regular HTTP and HTTPS servers All modules enabled [ ii ]

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64

Mail server proxy

65

Build configuration issues

65 65

Make sure you installed the prerequisites Directories exist and are writable

66

Compiling and installing

Controlling the Nginx service

67

Daemons and services User and group Nginx command-line switches Starting and stopping the daemon Testing the configuration Other switches

67

68 68

69 69 70 71 71 73 73 75

Adding Nginx as a system service System V scripts Wh at is an init script? Creating an init script for Nginx Installing the script

76 76

Debian-based distributions Red Hat-based distributions

Summary

77

Chapter 3: Basic Nginx Configuration Configuration file syntax Configuration Directives Organization and inclusions Directive blocks Advanced language rules

81 83

84 84

Directives accept specific synlaxes Diminutives in directive values Variables String values

85 86 86

86 87 87 88

Base module directives What are base modules? Nginx process architecture Core module directives Events module Configuration module

A configuration for your profile Understanding the default configuration Necessary adjustments Adapting to your hardware

Testing your server Creating a test server ~---~.~--------

79 79 80

93 95 95 95

96 97

99 99 [iii] - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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Performance tests Httperf Autobench OpenWebload

Upgrading Nginx gracefully Summary

Chapter 4: HTTP Configuration HTTP Core module Structure blocks Module directives Socket and host configuration Paths and documents Client requests MIME Types Limits and restrictions File processing and caching Other directives Module variables Request headers Response headers Nginx generated The Location block Location modifier Search order and priority

100 101 102 103

105 106 107 107 108 109 110 114 117

121 123 125 127 130

130 131 132 133

133 136

Gase 1: Gase 2: Gase 3:

137 138 138

Summary

139 141

Chapter 5: Module Configuration Rewrite module Reminder on regular expressions Purpose PGRE syntax Quantifiers Gaptures

Internal requests error_page Rewrite Infinite loops Server Side Includes (551)

Conditional structure Directives Common rewrite rules

141

142 142 142 144 145

146 147 148 149 150

151 153 156

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [iv] - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Table ofContents Performing a search User profile page Multiple parameters Wikipedia-like News website article Discussion board

551 module

Module directives and variables SSI Commands File includes Working with variables Conditional structure Configuration

Additional modules

Website access and logging Index Autoindex Random index Log

Limits and restrietions Auth_basic module Access Limit zone Limit request

Content and encoding Empty GIF FLV HTTP headers Addition Substitution Gzip filter Gzip static Charset filter Memcached Image filter XSLT

About your visitors Browser Map Geo GeolP UserlD filter Referer RealiP

SSL and security SSL Setting up an SSL certificate Secure link

156 156 156 157 157 157 157

158 160 160 162 163 163 164

164 164 165 166 166

168 168 168 169 169

170 170

171 171 172 172 173 175

175 176

178 179

179 179 180 180 181 181 182 183

183 183 185 186 [v] - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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Other miscellaneous modules Stub status Google-perftools WebDAV

Third-party modules Summary

Chapter 6: PHP and Python with Nginx Introduction to FastCGI Understanding the mechanism Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Fast Common Gateway Interface (FastCGI) Main directives FastCGI caching Upstream blocks Module syntax Server directive

PHP with Nginx Architecture PHP·FPM Setting up PHP and PHP-FPM Downloading and extraeting Patching Requirements Building PHP Post-install configuration Running and controlling

Nginx configuration Python and Nginx Django Setting up Python and Django Python Django Starting the FastCGI process manager

Nginx configuration Summary

Chapter 7: Apache and Nginx Together Nginx as reverse proxy Understanding the issue The reverse proxy mechanism Advantages and disadvantages Nginx Proxy module Main directives

187 187 187 188

189 190 191 192 192 193 194 195 201 204 205 206

207 207 208 208 208 209 209 209 210 210

211 212 212 213 213 213

214

215 215 217 217 218 219 220 221 222

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Table 0/ Contents

Caching, buffering, and temporary files Limits, timeouts, and errors Other directives Variables Configuring Apache and Nginx Reconfiguring Apache Configuration overview Resetting the port number Accepting local requests only

Configuring Nginx Enabling proxy options Separating content

Advanced configuration Additional steps Forwarding the correct IP address SSL issues and solutions Server control panel issues Summary

Chapter 8: From Apache to Nginx Nginx versus Apache Features Core and functioning General functionality

Flexibility and community Performance Usage Conclusion Porting your Apache configuration Directives Modules Virtual hosts and configuration sections Configuration sections Creating a virtual host

htaccess files Reminder on Apache .htaccess files Nginx equivalence

225 228 229 230 230 231 231 231 232

233 233 235

237 238 238 239 239 240 241 241 242 242 243

244 244 245 246 246 246 249 250 250 251

254 254 255

Rewrite rules General remarks

257 257

On the location On the syntax RewriteRule

257 258 259

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Table o[ Con tents

WordPress MediaWiki vBulietin Summary

Appendix A: Directive Index Appendix B: Module Reference Access Addition* Auth_basic module Autoindex Browser Charset Core DAV* Empty GIF Events FastCGI FLV* Geo Geo IP* Google-perftools* Gzip Gzip Static* Headers HTTP Core Image Filter* Index Limit Requests Limit Zone Log Map Memcached Proxy Random index* ReallP* Referer Rewrite Secure Link* SSI SSL*

259

261 262

263 265 287 287 287 288 288 288 288 289 289 289 289 290 290 290 290 291 291 291 291 292 292 292 292 293 293 293 293 294 294 294 294 295 295 295 295

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Stub status* Substitution* Upstream User 10 XSLT*

Appendix C: Troubleshooting General tips on troubleshooting Checking access permissions Testing your configuration Have you reloaded the service? Checking logs Install issues 403 Forbidden custom error page Location block priorities If block issues Inefficient statements Unexpected behavior

Index

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299 300 300 300 301 301 302 303 303 304

305

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