---
name: "nginx"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "nginx"
version: "1.30.6-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/nginx/8"
---

# nginx(8)

HTTP and reverse proxy server, mail proxy server

## 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 */etc/nginx*.

- **-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

- */run/nginx.pid*

  Contains the process ID of **nginx**. The contents of this file are not sensitive, so it can be world-readable.

- */etc/nginx/nginx.conf*

  The main configuration file.

- *stderr*

  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 /var/run/mynginx.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.