nginx cheat sheet: commands, server blocks, locations and proxying

updated 2026-10-20

tool: nginx
versions: nginx 1.25+
os: any

The nginx commands and configuration snippets used most. Paths are the Debian/Ubuntu defaults; other distributions use /etc/nginx/conf.d/ instead of sites-enabled/.

Commands

Command	Does
sudo nginx -t	test the configuration
sudo nginx -T	test and print the full configuration
sudo systemctl reload nginx	reload without dropping connections
sudo nginx -s reload	the same, by signalling the master process
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log	follow the error log
nginx -V	version and compiled-in modules

Location matching order

Form	Matches	Priority
location = /path	exactly /path	1: wins immediately
location ^~ /path/	prefix, and skips regex checks	2: longest such prefix
location ~ regex / ~* regex	regex, case-sensitive / -insensitive	3: first match in file order
location /path/	prefix	4: longest prefix, if no regex matched

A complete site

nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    http2 on;
    server_name example.com;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;

    root /var/www/example;
    client_max_body_size 20m;

    location /assets/ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }

    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }
}

Check a configuration like this one

bash

mkdir -p logs temp
cat > nginx.conf <<'EOF'
pid logs/nginx.pid;
events {}
http {
  server {
    listen 127.0.0.1:8080;
    root html;
    client_max_body_size 20m;
    location = /health { return 200 "ok\n"; }
    location ^~ /assets/ { expires 1y; add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable"; }
    location /api/ {
      proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
    location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html; }
  }
}
EOF
nginx -p . -c nginx.conf -e stderr -t 2>&1 | sed -E 's/^[0-9/]+ [0-9:]+ \[([a-z]+)\] [0-9#]+: /[\1] /'

Output

nginx: the configuration file ./nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file ./nginx.conf test is successful

Sources

commands · nginxnginx -t: test the configuration before reloadingnginx -t checks the configuration syntax and the files it references without touching the running server; nginx -T also prints the full merged config.config · nginxnginx proxy_pass with and without a trailing slashproxy_pass http://app without a path forwards the full URI; with a path like http://app/ nginx replaces the matched location prefix. Real requests shown.codes · nginxnginx status codes 444, 499, 413 and 494-497nginx-specific status codes: 444 closes the connection without a reply, 499 means the client left first, 494 to 497 are header and TLS errors, plus 413.

Commands

Location matching order

A complete site

Check a configuration like this one

Sources

Related pages