Nginx still try to open default error log file even though I set nginx config file while reloading

Question

The below is my nginx configuration file located in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

user Foo;
worker_processes 1;

error_log /home/Foo/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /home/Foo/run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    use epoll;
}

http {
    access_log /home/Foo/log/nginx/access.log;

    server {
        listen 80;

        location = / {
            proxy_pass http://192.168.0.16:9999;
        }
    }
}

As you can see I change log, pid files location into home directory.

When I re-start Linux it seems to work, Nginx records error logs in the file I set and pid file also.

However, when it tries nginx -s reload or the other, It tries to open other error log file.

nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)
2015/12/14 11:23:54 [warn] 3356#0: the "user" directive makes sense only if the master process runs with super-user privileges, ignored in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
2015/12/14 11:23:54 [emerg] 3356#0: open() "/home/Foo/run/nginx.pid" failed (13: Permission denied)
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

I know, I can solve permission error with sudo but the main issue in here is a error log file(/var/log/nginx/error.log) Nginx tries to open.

Why does it try to access another error log file?

Answer 1

Check the permissions on the directory /home/Foo/log/nginx/. It must be writable by nginx. Set permissions like so:

sudo chmod 766 /home/Foo/log/nginx

Answer 2

You might need to fire it with sudo

sudo nginx -t

Answer 3

This is old... but I went through the same pain and here is my solution.

As you can see the log is an alert, not a blocking error:

nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)

It shouldn't be a problem :) Nginx just likes to check that file on startup...

Just use -p option. Something like this to launch Nginx locally works for me:

nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf -g 'daemon off;' -p /home/Foo/log/nginx

Answer 4

The alert comes from the nginx initialization procedure, when it checks that it can write to the error log path that has been compiled in with the --error-log-path configure flag. This happens before nginx even looks at your configuration file, so it doesn't matter what you write in it.

Recently (2020-11-19), an -e option was added to nginx, allowing you to override the error log path that has been compiled in. You can use that option to point nginx to a user-writeable file (or maybe stderr).

See https://trac.nginx.org/nginx/changeset/f18db38a9826a9239feea43c95515bac4e343c59/nginx

Answer 5

Yes, Nginx just likes to check that file on startup. I copy the nginx installed directory to another place, I start it, and the pid of the new Nginx still in old place. So I suggest you to delete old directory.

Answer 6

You will get this alert because your user doesn't have permission to modify the log file. I just assign the permission to the Nginx log file and it worked as expected. just use this command.

sudo chmod 766 /var/log/nginx/error.log

Answer 7

This simple answer is to use sudo.

So when I used sudo nginx -t

Everything turned out fine.

BTW, this had error precipitated for me when I was increasing the file upload limits in PHP.INI on Ubuntu 18.04, and I had restarted my PHP and my NGINX and thats when I tested:

2020/10/19 20:27:43 [warn] 1317#1317: the "user" directive makes sense only if the master process runs with super-user privileges, ignored in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1
2020/10/19 20:27:43 [emerg] 1317#1317: BIO_new_file("/etc/letsencrypt/live/websitename.com/fullchain.pem") failed (SSL: error:0200100D:system library:fopen:Permission denied:fopen('/etc/letsencrypt/live/websitename.com/fullchain.pem','r') error:2006D002:BIO routines:BIO_new_file:system lib)
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed