nginx.md

Nginx static webserver

Basic assumptions

• Ubuntu
• Non-root user with sudo privilege

Install

sudo apt install nginx

Create your website

Static files are served from /var/www.

Create a folder within /var/www and load your static files into it.

Set up a virtual host

Edit /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    # This doesn't matter if you don't actually have a domain
    server_name example.com

    # The directory to search for the index file
    root /var/www/mysite;

    # The name of the index file
    index index.html

    location / {
        # First try to serve files, then directories, then send 404
        try_files $uri $uri =404;
    }
}

Test your nginx configuration

sudo nginx -t

Reload nginx

sudo service nginx restart