The nginx web server can be restarted using any one of the following command line syntax. Use the systemctl command on systemd based version such as Ubuntu Linux 16.04LTS and above.
Ubuntu Linux restart nginx
Type the following command:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
OR
sudo service nginx restart
OR (older Ubuntu Linux version):
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
Start / Restart / Stop Nginx Commands
The same commands can be used to start / stop / restart the nginx server on a Ubuntu Linux. For example:
sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl stop nginx sudo systemctl restart nginx |
One can use the following service command to restart or start or stop Nginx web server on an older version of Ubuntu server:
sudo service nginx start sudo service nginx stop sudo service nginx restart |
OR
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start sudo /etc/init.d/nginx stop sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart |
To view status of your Nginx server
Use any one of the following command:
sudo service status nginx
## OR ##
sudo systemctl status nginx
Sample outputs:
? 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 Wed 2016-11-02 22:17:38 UTC; 2 days ago
Process: 303 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0
Process: 264 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited,
Main PID: 304 (nginx)
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
??304 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on
??305 nginx: worker process
??306 nginx: worker process
??307 nginx: worker process
??308 nginx: worker process
??309 nginx: worker process
??310 nginx: worker process
??311 nginx: cache manager process
Nov 02 22:17:38 newcbz systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy se
Nov 02 22:17:38 newcbz systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy serA note about reload nginx server
It is also possible to use the following syntax to reload nginx server after you made changes to the config file such as nginx.conf:
sudo nginx -s reload
OR
sudo systemctl reload nginx
OR
sudo service nginx reload
Dealing with error messages on screen
If the nginx server failed to start or stop or restart, check for the syntax error:
nginx -t ## OR set path to config file and test for the errors ## nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf -t |
Sample outputs:
The following error indicate that the username “nginxf” does not exists on line # 2:
nginx: [emerg] getpwnam(“nginxf”) failed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:2
To fix this error, edit the file with a text editor such as vi/vim/joe etc:
sudo vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf ## or edit and jump to line no. 2 ### sudo vi +2 /etc/nginx/nginx.conf |
Update config file. Save and close the file. Test is again:
nginx -t |
I also recommend that you check for nginx server log files for more info:
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log
2015/03/19 02:49:30 [emerg] 43130#0: getpwnam("nginxf") failed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:2
2015/03/19 02:49:44 [emerg] 43145#0: getpwnam("nginxf") failed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:2
It is also possible to use the systemd systemctl and journalctl commands for details on errors:
$ sudo systemctl status nginx.service
$ sudo journalctl -xe
Conclusion
You learned how to restart, start, stop the Nginx web server on Ubuntu Linux using command line options. See nginx home page here for more info.
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6 comment
Hi. i just use command: sudo service nginx restart but i get an error
* Restarting nginx nginx [fail]
Please help me how to solve? thanks
Same problem here. Any ideas?
Check for error.log file:
tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.logor
nginx -tHi! This is really useful. Do you have an ansible equivalent of these commands?
Hi this error due to default configuration file issue, please check default file is correctly configured or not. path:check /etc/nginx/sites-available/defalut
Ex:
server { listen 80; root /usr/share/nginx/html; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name example.com; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html; } error_page 404 /404.html; error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { root /usr/share/nginx/www; } # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000 location ~ \.php$ { try_files $uri =404; fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; include fastcgi_params; } }Check your hosts file at etc/hosts and reboot(restart) your system and run the below command as root(sudo)
* Restarting nginx nginx [ OK ]xxx@xxx:~$ sudo nginx -s reload
xxx@xxx:~$ nginx -t
nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)
2016/11/02 15:52:51 [warn] 2855#0: the "user" directive makes sense only if the master process runs with super-user privileges, ignored in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
2016/11/02 15:52:51 [emerg] 2855#0: open() "/run/nginx.pid" failed (13: Permission denied)
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed
xxx@xxx:~$ sudo nginx -t
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful