server-configs-nginx/docs/getting-started.md

[Nginx Server Configs homepage](https://github.com/h5bp/server-configs-nginx)

# Getting started

Using the Nginx server configs repo directly has a few required steps to be able to work.

## Check `nginx.conf` settings

The first thing to check is that the `nginx.conf` file contains appropriate values for
your specific install. The web user varies with distribution, in most cases compare to
the config file originally present, and use the same user:

    // /etc/nginx-original/nginx.conf
    user www-data www-data;

Apply to the runtime config file:

    // /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    #user www www;
    user www-data www-data;

## Configure logs and pid file

The location of logs also varies from system to system. To account for this the `nginx.conf`
file uses a relative path for logs:

    // /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    error_log logs/error.log warn;

There are two options to configure this appropriately, change the path to point at the folder
where logs should be stored:

    // /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;

Or, setup a symlink to point at the right place:

    cd /etc/nginx
    ln -s /var/log/nginx logs

The location of the pid file should also be checked and corrected if necessary.

Check your config before trying to start nginx:

    nginx -t
    nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
    nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

If you see:

    nginx -t
    nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
    nginx: [emerg] open() "/usr/share/nginx/log/access.log" failed (2: No such file or directory)
    nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

Or similar, there is still a problem to resolve before continuing.

## Verify config and restart nginx

Verify the config and restart nginx to apply the changes.

To verify nginx config (Tests default nginx config file)

    nginx -t 

**OR**

To verify a particular nginx config file
    
    nginx -t -c nginx.conf
    
This will test the nginx config file and throws error if any. Otherwise test is successful and you can restart nginx.

Finally reload nginx to apply the changes.
    
    nginx reload