Nginx Tips

Installation

This is inspired by Install Nginx on Ubuntu and I did it after setting up Ubuntu as per Ubuntu Tips .

Running Nginx in WSL

Due to WSL limitations (systemd not yet available, see Issues in WSL with systemd, ufw, etc.), to start Nginx in WSL you must use SystemV’s service command to invoke the nginx script in etc.init.d.

Example: here we see that the nginx script does live in etc.init.d, and that it gets started in WSL:

alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$ ls /etc/init.d
apparmor          cryptdisks        iscsid             multipath-tools  plymouth-log    ssh                  x11-common
apport            cryptdisks-early  keyboard-setup.sh  nginx            procps          udev
atd               dbus              kmod               open-iscsi       rsync           ufw
console-setup.sh  hwclock.sh        lvm2               open-vm-tools    rsyslog         unattended-upgrades
cron              irqbalance        lvm2-lvmpolld      plymouth         screen-cleanup  uuidd
alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$
alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$ sudo service nginx help
Usage: nginx {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload|status|configtest|rotate|upgrade}
alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$
alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$ sudo service nginx start
* Starting nginx nginx                                                                                          [ OK ]
alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$
alex@CC-Labs-2:/etc/nginx$ sudo service nginx status
* nginx is running

Unfortunately, WSL’s nginx script provides less information than normal Linux. For example, in a true Linux system (such as a VM running in Hyper-v), we see a much richer status description:

ubuntu@ccl-vm-1:~$ sudo service nginx status
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2020-05-15 15:03:21 PDT; 50min ago
    Docs: man:nginx(8)
Process: 1087 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 941 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1095 (nginx)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 1075)
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
        ├─1095 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
        └─1096 nginx: worker process

May 15 15:03:20 ccl-vm-1 systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server...
May 15 15:03:21 ccl-vm-1 systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.
ubuntu@ccl-vm-1:~$

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