Master Nginx on CentOS: Install, Configure, and Manage Services Step‑by‑Step

1. Installation

Download the RPM package and install it:

wget http://nginx.org/packages/centos/7/x86_64/RPMS/nginx-1.10.0-1.el7.ngx.x86_64.rpm

rpm -ivh nginx-1.10.0-1.el7.ngx.x86_64.rpm

If wget is missing, install it with yum -y install wget.

2. Nginx installation directories

Executable: /usr/sbin/nginx Modules: /usr/lib64/nginx/modules Configuration files: /etc/nginx/ Default site root: /usr/share/nginx/html Use ps aux | grep nginx to view running processes and identify the main configuration file and user.

Main configuration file: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf PID file: /var/run/nginx.pid Error log: /var/log/nginx/error.log Access log:

/var/log/nginx/access.log

3. Check Nginx status

Run either systemctl status nginx.service or service nginx status to see whether the service is running; screenshots illustrate both running and stopped states.

4. View version

Execute nginx -V to display the compiled version and configuration options.

5. Process management

List Nginx processes with ps aux | grep nginx (filter out the grep process). Check listening ports using netstat -antp | grep :80 or netstat -ntlp | grep :80. To stop Nginx, kill the process using commands such as kill -QUIT PID (graceful), kill -TERM PID (fast), or kill -9 PID (force), or use killall -9 nginx / pkill -9 nginx.

6. Verify configuration syntax

Method 1: navigate to the sbin directory and run ./nginx -t.

Method 2: add -t before the -c option in the start command.

7. Restart Nginx

Method 1: run /usr/sbin/nginx -s reload (or the appropriate path) to reload configuration.

Method 2: find the Nginx PID and execute kill -HUP PID to trigger a graceful restart.