Nginx, it is one of the awesome open source package which is used for webserver, loadbalancer, reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, IMAP and HTTP cache server . It is best known for handling the C10K problem .

In this post we are writing on , how to install Nginx from source code on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS . We will use it basically for web server which is its actual origin.

Install Nginx from source code on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server

Follow the given below steps to install Nginx from source code on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server.

login as Super User

login as super user on system.

sudo su -

Download the Nginx source code

We will suggest you to always use latest available stable version. You can download the nginx source code from Nginx.org download page.

Here we are using curl command to download the current available latest package.

curl -O http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.6.2.tar.gz

Add nginx user

Use below given command to add nginx user with nologin shell.

useradd -s /sbin/nologin nginx

Install dependency packages

Here, we are going to enable and use most of the module in Nginx. Hence, we are installing all the dependency packages.

apt-get install build-essential libc6 libpcre3 libpcre3-dev libpcrecpp0 libssl0.9.8 libssl-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev lsb-base openssl libssl-dev  libgeoip1 libgeoip-dev  google-perftools libgoogle-perftools-dev libperl-dev  libgd2-xpm-dev libatomic-ops-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev python-dev

Untar the nginx source code

Now untar the downloaded nginx source code.
Note: replace the nginx package name if you have different nginx source code version.

tar -xvzf nginx-1.6.2.tar.gz

It will extract out the Nginx directory. In our case, the directory name is nginx-1.6.2 .

Compiling Nginx source code

First change to directory extracted out from nginx tar ball.

cd nginx-1.6.2/

Now compile the Nginx source code.

./configure --user=nginx --group=nginx --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid  --with-rtsig_module --with-select_module --with-poll_module --with-file-aio --with-ipv6 --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_spdy_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_xslt_module --with-http_image_filter_module --with-http_geoip_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_gunzip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_auth_request_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_degradation_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-http_perl_module --with-mail --with-mail_ssl_module --with-cpp_test_module  --with-cpu-opt=CPU --with-pcre  --with-pcre-jit  --with-md5-asm  --with-sha1-asm  --with-zlib-asm=CPU --with-libatomic --with-debug --with-ld-opt="-Wl,-E"

Now make and install the source code.

make && make install

The nginx installation is successfully done here. Now we have to create nginx daemon file which will be used for nginx service start,stop,status,reload,restart .

Create Nginx Daemon file

Create a new file called nginx inside /etc/init.d

vi /etc/init.d/nginx

And paste the below given code

#! /bin/bash

. /lib/lsb/init-functions
 
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#                               Consts
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin/
DAEMON=/usr/sbin/nginx
 
PS="nginx"
PIDNAME="nginx"				#lets you do $PS-slave
PIDFILE=$PIDNAME.pid                    #pid file
PIDSPATH=/var/run
 
DESCRIPTION="Nginx Server version 1.6.2"
 
RUNAS=root                              #user to run as
 
SCRIPT_OK=0                             #ala error codes
SCRIPT_ERROR=1                          #ala error codes
TRUE=1                                  #boolean
FALSE=0                                 #boolean
 
lockfile=/var/lock/subsys/nginx
NGINX_CONF_FILE="/etc/nginx/nginx.conf"
 
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#                               Simple Tests
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
#test if nginx is a file and executable
test -x $DAEMON || exit 0
 
# Include nginx defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ] ; then
        . /etc/default/nginx
fi
 
#set exit condition
#set -e
 
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#                               Functions
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
setFilePerms(){
 
        if [ -f $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE ]; then
                chmod 400 $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE
        fi
}
 
configtest() {
	$DAEMON -t -c $NGINX_CONF_FILE
}
 
getPSCount() {
	return `pgrep -f $PS | wc -l`
}
 
isRunning() {
        if [ $1 ]; then
                pidof_daemon $1
                PID=$?
 
                if [ $PID -gt 0 ]; then
                        return 1
                else
                        return 0
                fi
        else
                pidof_daemon
                PID=$?
 
                if [ $PID -gt 0 ]; then
                        return 1
                else
                        return 0
                fi
        fi
}
 
#courtesy of php-fpm
wait_for_pid () {
        try=0
 
        while test $try -lt 35 ; do
 
                case "$1" in
                        'created')
                        if [ -f "$2" ] ; then
                                try=''
                                break
                        fi
                        ;;
 
                        'removed')
                        if [ ! -f "$2" ] ; then
                                try=''
                                break
                        fi
                        ;;
                esac
 
                #echo -n .
                try=`expr $try + 1`
                sleep 1
        done
}
 
status(){
	isRunning
	isAlive=$?
 
	if [ "${isAlive}" -eq $TRUE ]; then
                echo "$PIDNAME found running with processes:  `pidof $PS`"
        else
                echo "$PIDNAME is NOT running."
        fi
 
 
}
 
removePIDFile(){
	if [ $1 ]; then
                if [ -f $1 ]; then
        	        rm -f $1
	        fi
        else
		#Do default removal
		if [ -f $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE ]; then
        	        rm -f $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE
	        fi
        fi
}
 
start() {
        log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESCRIPTION"
 
	isRunning
	isAlive=$?
 
        if [ "${isAlive}" -eq $TRUE ]; then
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
        else
                start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --chuid $RUNAS --pidfile $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON 
                -- -c $NGINX_CONF_FILE
                setFilePerms
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
        fi
}
 
stop() {
	log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESCRIPTION"
 
	isRunning
	isAlive=$?
        if [ "${isAlive}" -eq $TRUE ]; then
                start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE
 
		wait_for_pid 'removed' $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE
 
                if [ -n "$try" ] ; then
                        log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
                else
                        removePIDFile
	                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
                fi
 
        else
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
        fi
}
 
reload() {
	configtest || return $?
 
	log_daemon_msg "Reloading (via HUP) $DESCRIPTION"
 
        isRunning
        if [ $? -eq $TRUE ]; then
		`killall -HUP $PS` #to be safe
 
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
        else
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
        fi
}
 
quietupgrade() {
	log_daemon_msg "Peforming Quiet Upgrade $DESCRIPTION"
 
        isRunning
        isAlive=$?
        if [ "${isAlive}" -eq $TRUE ]; then
		kill -USR2 `cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE`
		kill -WINCH `cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin`
 
		isRunning
		isAlive=$?
		if [ "${isAlive}" -eq $TRUE ]; then
			kill -QUIT `cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin`
			wait_for_pid 'removed' $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin
                        removePIDFile $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin
 
			log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
		else
			log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
 
			log_daemon_msg "ERROR! Reverting back to original $DESCRIPTION"
 
			kill -HUP `cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE`
			kill -TERM `cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin`
			kill -QUIT `cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin`
 
			wait_for_pid 'removed' $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin
                        removePIDFile $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE.oldbin
 
			log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ok
		fi
        else
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
        fi
}
 
terminate() {
        log_daemon_msg "Force terminating (via KILL) $DESCRIPTION"
 
	PIDS=`pidof $PS` || true
 
	[ -e $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE ] && PIDS2=`cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE`
 
	for i in $PIDS; do
		if [ "$i" = "$PIDS2" ]; then
	        	kill $i
                        wait_for_pid 'removed' $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE
			removePIDFile
		fi
	done
 
	log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
}
 
destroy() {
	log_daemon_msg "Force terminating and may include self (via KILLALL) $DESCRIPTION"
	killall $PS -q >> /dev/null 2>&1
	log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
}
 
pidof_daemon() {
    PIDS=`pidof $PS` || true
 
    [ -e $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE ] && PIDS2=`cat $PIDSPATH/$PIDFILE`
 
    for i in $PIDS; do
        if [ "$i" = "$PIDS2" ]; then
            return 1
        fi
    done
    return 0
}
 
case "$1" in
  start)
	start
        ;;
  stop)
	stop
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
	stop
	sleep 1
	start
        ;;
  reload)
	$1
	;;
  status)
	status
	;;
  configtest)
        $1
        ;;
  quietupgrade)
	$1
	;;
  terminate)
	$1
	;;
  destroy)
	$1
	;;
  *)
	FULLPATH=/etc/init.d/$PS
	echo "Usage: $FULLPATH {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status|configtest|quietupgrade|terminate|destroy}"
	echo "       The 'destroy' command should only be used as a last resort." 
	exit 1
	;;
esac
 
exit 0

Save and exit from file.

To make it executable, give the executable permission to nginx daemon file.

chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx

How to start/stop/status of Nginx service

To start the nginx service, use the command –

/etc/init.d/nginx start

To stop the nginx service, use the command –

/etc/init.d/nginx stop

To check status the nginx service, use the command –

/etc/init.d/nginx status

Use –help argument , to know about more usage of nginx daemon script . Given below is reference from our system.

root@web:~# /etc/init.d/nginx --help
Usage: /etc/init.d/nginx {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status|configtest|quietupgrade|terminate|destroy}
       The 'destroy' command should only be used as a last resort.
root@web:~#

Check Web Server

To check web server accessible on port 80, open the web browser and type the ip address or hostname of web server in URL field.

http://ip-address-of-web-server

It will show the welcome page.