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Install NGINX from source code on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server
Install NGINX from source code on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server

Normally you will install Nginx using apt-get install nginx, but in some scenarios we may need to install Nginx from source on Ubuntu. The reason could be we want to either install nginx with new custom nginx module which is not there in base nginx version or we don’t want to use all the modules available by default in nginx. In this article we are going to delve into it. Please remember if we go this route of installing from source, going forward you need to do compile only if you need to add one more package or upgrade nginx.

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

Step-1

login as SUDO User

login as super user on system.

#sudo -i

Step-2

Download the Nginx source code from NGINX official site.

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

Step-3

Add nginx user to run NGINX demon in server.

Command to add nginx user with nologin shell.

#useradd -s /sbin/nologin nginx

Step-4

Install dependency packages

Installing  all the dependency packages and NGINX modules.

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

Step-5

Extract NGINX source code

User tar command to extract the downloaded nginx source code.

#tar -xvzf nginx-1.6.2.tar.gz

It will extract out the Nginx directory.

Compiling NGINX source code

First change to directory extracted out from nginx tar ball.

#cd nginx-1.6.2/

Step-6

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”

Install NGINX with below command

#make && make install

The nginx installation is successfully competed.

Now we have to create nginx daemon file which will be used for nginx service start,stop,status,reload,restart .

Step-7

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

Step-8

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.

# /etc/init.d/nginx –help

Usage: /etc/init.d/nginx {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status|configtest|quietupgrade|terminate|destroy}

Step-9

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://IPADDRESS_OF_NGINX_SERVER

It will display the default WELCOME page.

That’s it, we are done with NGINX source code installation with custom modules.