nginx initscript for debian 7 (Wheezy)

17 May 2013

If you've compiled nginx yourself instead of using the (often outdated) packages from aptitude, you might be longing for a complete and working init script. The script below is taken from the Debian unstable (Sid) package of nginx (v1.4.1-1), and adapted to work with a Phusion Passenger installed nginx (i.e. installed to /opt/nginx):

#!/bin/sh

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:   nginx
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog $named
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog $named
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts the nginx web server
# Description:       starts nginx using start-stop-daemon
### END INIT INFO

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/opt/nginx/sbin/nginx
PID=/opt/nginx/logs/nginx.pid
NAME=nginx
DESC=nginx

# Include nginx defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ]; then
    . /etc/default/nginx
fi

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

set -e

. /lib/lsb/init-functions


# Check if the ULIMIT is set in /etc/default/nginx
if [ -n "$ULIMIT" ]; then
  # Set the ulimits
  ulimit $ULIMIT
fi

test_nginx_config() {
        $DAEMON -t $DAEMON_OPTS >/dev/null 2>&1
        retvar=$?
        if [ $retvar -ne 0 ]
        then
            exit $retvar
        fi
}

start() {
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PID \
            --retry 5 --exec $DAEMON --oknodo -- $DAEMON_OPTS
}

stop() {
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PID \
            --retry 5 --oknodo --exec $DAEMON
}

case "$1" in
    start)
        test_nginx_config
        log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
        start
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;

    stop)
        log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
        stop
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;

    restart|force-reload)
        test_nginx_config
        log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
        stop
        sleep 1
        start
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;

    reload)
        test_nginx_config
        log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC configuration" "$NAME"
        start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile $PID \
            --oknodo --exec $DAEMON
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;

    configtest|testconfig)
        log_daemon_msg "Testing $DESC configuration"
        if test_nginx_config; then
            log_daemon_msg "$NAME"
        else
            exit $?
        fi
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;

    status)
        status_of_proc -p $PID "$DAEMON" nginx
        ;;

    *)
        echo "Usage: $NAME {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload|status|configtest}" >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

exit 0