Main Module

Configure error logging, processes, permissions, etc.

user nginx;
worker_processes 2;

error_log logs/error.log;
pid logs/nginx.pid;

worker_rlimit_nofile 8192;

[Documentation]

Events Module

Configure epoll, kqueue, select, poll, etc.

events {
  use kqueue; 
  worker_connections  4096;
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Core

Control ports, locations, error pages, aliases, and other essentials.

http {
  sendfile     on;
  tcp_nopush   on;

  server { 
    listen 80;
  }
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Upstream

For load-balancing.

upstream backend  {
  server b1.example.com weight=5;
  server b2.example.com:81;
  server unix:/tmp/backend3;
}

server {
  location / {
    proxy_pass  http://backend;
  }
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Access

Allow/deny based on IP address.

location / {
  deny    192.168.1.1;
  allow   192.168.1.0/24;
  allow   10.1.1.0/16;
  deny    all;
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Auth Basic

Basic HTTP authentication.

location  /  {
  auth_basic "Restricted";
  auth_basic_user_file conf/htpasswd;
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Auto Index

Generates automatic directory listings.

location  /  {
  autoindex  on;
}

[Documentation]

Browser

Interpret "User-Agent" string.

ancient_browser Links Lynx Netscape4;

if ($ancient_browser){
  rewrite ^ /ancient.html;
}

[Documentation]

Charset

Recode web pages.

charset windows-1251;
source_charset koi8-r;

[Documentation]

Empty GIF

Serve a 1x1 image from memory.

location = /1x1.gif {
  empty_gif;
}

[Documentation]

FastCGI

FastCGI Support.

location \.php$ {
  include fastcgi_conf;
  fastcgi_pass localhost:9000;
  fastcgi_index index.php;
}

[Documentation]

Geo

Set config variables using key/value pairs of IP addresses.

geo $geo {
  default          0;
  127.0.0.1/32     2;
  192.168.1.0/24   1;
  10.1.0.0/16      1;
}

[Documentation]

Gzip

Gzip responses.

gzip on;
gzip_min_length 1000;
gzip_types text/plain application/xml;
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.";

[Documentation]

HTTP Headers

Set arbitrary HTTP response headers.

expires 24h;
add_header Cache-Control private;

[Documentation]

Index

Controls which files are to be used as index.

location / {
  index index.html index.htm;
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Referer

Filter requests based on Referer header.

location /photos/ {
  valid_referers none blocked 
                 www.mydomain.com 
                 mydomain.com;

  if ($invalid_referer) {
    return 403;
  }
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Limit Zone

Limit simultaneous connections from a client.

http {
  limit_zone one $binary_remote_addr 10m;

  server {
    location /download/ {
      limit_conn one 1;
    }
  }
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Limit Requests

Limit frequency of connections from a client.

http {
    limit_req_zone  $binary_remote_addr \
       zone=one:10m   rate=1r/s;
    server {
        location /search/ {
            limit_req   zone=one  burst=5;
        }
    }
}

[Documentation]

Log

Customize access logs.

 
access_log /var/logs/nginx/access.log
           gzip
           buffer=32k;

[Documentation]

Map

Set config variables using arbitrary key/value pairs.

map $http_host $name  {
  hostnames;

  default          0;
  example.com      1;
  *.example.com    1;
  test.com         2;
  *.test.com       2;
  .site.com        3;
}

[Documentation]

Memcached

Memcached support.

server {
  location / {
    set $memcached_key $uri;
    memcached_pass name:11211;
    default_type text/html;
    error_page 404 = /fallback;
  }

  location = /fallback {
    proxy_pass backend;
  }
}

[Documentation]

HTTP Proxy

Proxy to upstream servers.

location / {
  proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}

[Documentation]

Rewrite

Request rewriting using regular expressions.

location /en {
  rewrite ^/en/(.*)$ /($1)?lang=en last;
}

[Documentation]

SSI

Server-side includes.

location / {
  ssi on;
}

[Documentation]

User ID

Issue identifying cookies.

userid on;
userid_name uid;
userid_domain example.com;
userid_path /;
userid_expires 365d;

[Documentation]

HTTP Addition

Append text to pages.

--with-http_addition_module

location / {
  add_before_body /before_action;
  add_after_body /after_action;
}

[Documentation]

Embedded Perl

Use Perl in Nginx config files.

--with-http_perl_module

[Documentation]

FLV

Flash Streaming Video

--with-http_flv_module

[Documentation]

Gzip Precompression

--with-http_gzip_static_module

[Documentation]

Random Index

Randomize directory indexes.

--with-http_random_index_module

[Documentation]

GeoIP

Creates variables with information from the MaxMind GeoIP binary files.

--with-http_geoip_module

[Documentation]

Real IP

For using nginx as backend

--with-http_realip_module

[Documentation]

SSL

HTTPS/SSL support.

--with-http_ssl_module

[Documentation]

Stub Status

View server statistics.

--with-http_stub_status_module

[Documentation]

Substitution

Replace text in pages

--with-http_sub_module

[Documentation]

WebDAV

WebDAV pass-through support.

--with-http_dav_module

[Documentation]

Google Perftools

Google Performance Tools support.

--with-google_perftools_module

[Documentation]

XSLT

Post-process pages with XSLT.

--with-http_xslt_module

[Documentation]

Secure Link

Protect pages with a secret key.

--with-http_secure_link_module

[Documentation]

Image Filter

Transform images with Libgd

--with-http_image_filter_module

[Documentation]

Mail Core

Nginx is able to handle and proxy the IMAP, POP3, SMTP protocols.

Mail Core Module

Mail Auth

Use Nginx to authenticate mail services.

Mail Auth Module

Mail Proxy

Mail Proxy Module

Mail SSL

This module ensures SSL/TLS support for POP3/IMAP/SMTP.

Mail SSL Module