configure determines the features of system and, in particular, the methods, which nginx can use for handling connections. Finally it creates the Makefile.

configure supports the following options:

–prefix=<path> – The path relative to which all other Nginx paths will resolve. If not specified, defaults to /usr/local/nginx.

–sbin-path=<path> – The path to the nginx executable. Only used for installation. If not specified defaults to <prefix>/sbin/nginx.

–conf-path=<path> – The default location of nginx.conf if no -c parameter is provided. If not provided, defaults to <prefix>/conf/nginx.conf.

–pid-path=<path> – The path to nginx.pid, if not set via the "pid" directive in nginx.conf. If not provided, defaults to <prefix>/logs/nginx.pid.

–lock-path=<path> – The path to the nginx.lock file. If not provided, defaults to <prefix>/logs/nginx.lock.

–error-log-path=<path> – The location of the error log if not set via the "error_log" in nginx.conf. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/logs/error.log.

–http-log-path=<path> – The location of the access log if not set via the "access_log" directive in nginx.conf. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/logs/access.log.

–user=<user> – The default user that nginx will run as if not set in nginx.conf via the "user" directive. If not set, defaults to "nobody".

–group=<group> – The default group that nginx will run under if not set via the "user" directive in nginx.conf. If not set defaults to "nobody".

–builddir=DIR – Set the build directory

–with-rtsig_module – Enable rtsig module

–with-select_module –without-select_module – Whether or not to enable the select module. This module is enabled by default if a more suitable method such as kqueue, epoll, rtsig or /dev/poll is not discovered by configure.

–with-poll_module –without-poll_module – Whether or not to enable the poll module. This module is enabled by default if a more suitable method such as kqueue, epoll, rtsig or /dev/poll is not discovered by configure.

–with-http_ssl_module – Enable ngx_http_ssl_module. Enables SSL support and the ability to handle HTTPS requests. Requires OpenSSL. On Debian, this is libssl-dev.

–with-http_realip_module – Enable ngx_http_realip_module

–with-http_addition_module – Enable ngx_http_addition_module

–with-http_sub_module – Enable ngx_http_sub_module

–with-http_dav_module – Enable ngx_http_dav_module

–with-http_flv_module – Enable ngx_http_flv_module

–with-http_stub_status_module – Enable the "server status" page

–without-http_charset_module – Disable ngx_http_charset_module

–without-http_gzip_module – Disable ngx_http_gzip_module. Requires zlib if enabled.

–without-http_ssi_module – Disable ngx_http_ssi_module

–without-http_userid_module – Disable ngx_http_userid_module

–without-http_access_module – Disable ngx_http_access_module

–without-http_auth_basic_module – Disable ngx_http_auth_basic_module

–without-http_autoindex_module – Disable ngx_http_autoindex_module

–without-http_geo_module – Disable ngx_http_geo_module

–without-http_map_module – Disable ngx_http_map_module

–without-http_referer_module – Disable ngx_http_referer_module

–without-http_rewrite_module – Disable ngx_http_rewrite_module. Requires PCRE if enabled.

–without-http_proxy_module – Disable ngx_http_proxy_module

–without-http_fastcgi_module – Disable ngx_http_fastcgi_module

–without-http_memcached_module – Disable ngx_http_memcached_module

–without-http_limit_zone_module – Disable ngx_http_limit_zone_module

–without-http_empty_gif_module – Disable ngx_http_empty_gif_module

–without-http_browser_module – Disable ngx_http_browser_module

–without-http_upstream_ip_hash_module – Disable ngx_http_upstream_ip_hash_module

–with-http_perl_module – Enable ngx_http_perl_module

–with-perl_modules_path=PATH – Set path to the perl modules

–with-perl=PATH – Set path to the perl binary

–http-client-body-temp-path=PATH – Set path to the http client request body temporary files. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/client_body_temp

–http-proxy-temp-path=PATH – Set path to the http proxy temporary files. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/proxy_temp

–http-fastcgi-temp-path=PATH – Set path to the http fastcgi temporary files. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/fastcgi_temp

–without-http – Disable HTTP server

–with-mail – Enable IMAP4/POP3/SMTP proxy module

–with-mail_ssl_module – Enable ngx_mail_ssl_module

–with-cc=PATH – Set path to C compiler

–with-cpp=PATH – Set path to C preprocessor

–with-cc-opt=OPTIONS – Additional parameters which will be added to the variable CFLAGS. With the use of the system library PCRE in FreeBSD, it is necessary to indicate –with-cc-opt="-I /usr/local/include". If we are using select() and it is necessary to increase the number of file descriptors, then this also can be assigned here: –with-cc-opt="-D FD_SETSIZE=2048".

–with-ld-opt=OPTIONS – Additional parameters passed to the linker. With the use of the system library PCRE in FreeBSD, it is necessary to indicate –with-ld-opt="-L /usr/local/lib".

–with-cpu-opt=CPU – Build for specified CPU, the valid values: pentium, pentiumpro, pentium3, pentium4, athlon, opteron, amd64, sparc32, sparc64, ppc64

–without-pcre – Disable PCRE library usage. Also disables HTTP rewrite module. PCRE is also required for regular expressions in "location" directive.

–with-pcre=DIR – Set path to PCRE library sources.

–with-pcre-opt=OPTIONS – Set additional options for PCRE building.

–with-md5=DIR – Set path to md5 library sources.

–with-md5-opt=OPTIONS – Set additional options for md5 building.

–with-md5-asm – Use md5 assembler sources.

–with-sha1=DIR – Set path to sha1 library sources.

–with-sha1-opt=OPTIONS – Set additional options for sha1 building.

–with-sha1-asm – Use sha1 assembler sources.

–with-zlib=DIR – Set path to zlib library sources.

–with-zlib-opt=OPTIONS – Set additional options for zlib building.

–with-zlib-asm=CPU – Use zlib assembler sources optimized for specified CPU, valid values are: pentium, pentiumpro

–with-openssl=DIR – Set path to OpenSSL library sources

–with-openssl-opt=OPTIONS – Set additional options for OpenSSL building

–with-debug – Enable debug logging

–add-module=PATH – Add in a third-party module found in directory PATH

Options may vary slightly between versions. Always check ./configure –help for the current list.

Examples

Example 1

This is a single line!

./configure \
  --sbin-path=/usr/local/nginx/nginx \
  --conf-path=/usr/local/nginx/nginx.conf \
  --pid-path=/usr/local/nginx/nginx.pid \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --with-pcre=../pcre-4.4 \
  --with-zlib=../zlib-1.1.3

Example 2

Default Debian Lenny.

./configure \
  --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
  --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \
  --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \
  --lock-path=/var/lock/nginx.lock \
  --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \
  --with-http_dav_module \
  --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/body \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/proxy \
  --with-http_stub_status_module \
  --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/fastcgi \
  --with-debug \
  --with-http_flv_module 

Example 3

I use this configuration for 50+ worth millions impressions per day.

./configure \
  --prefix=/usr \
  --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
  --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access_log \
  --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error_log \
  --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \
  --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/client \
  --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/proxy \
  --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/fastcgi \
  --with-md5-asm --with-md5=/usr/include \
  --with-sha1-asm \
  --with-sha1=/usr/include \
  --with-http_realip_module \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --with-http_perl_module \
  --with-http_stub_status_module

Example 4

Example on Ubuntu/debian with libgcrypt11-dev, libpcre3-dev and libssl-dev installed (choose EITHER –with-md5 OR –with-sha1, but not both; on debian and ubuntu, they should both point to /usr/lib)

./configure --with-openssl=/usr/lib/ssl/ --with-md5=/usr/lib

An Ubuntu Edgy .deb for version 0.5.2 can be found here: nginx_0.5.2-1_i386.deb .

Example 5

I use this on RedHat based distros (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora). This is the configuration used for running this wiki.

First, install the dependencies:

yum install gcc openssl-devel pcre-devel zlib-devel

Then run configure:

./configure \
  --prefix=/usr \
  --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx \
  --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
  --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \
  --pid-path=/var/run/nginx/nginx.pid  \
  --lock-path=/var/lock/nginx.lock \
  --user=nginx \
  --group=nginx \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --with-http_flv_module \
  --with-http_gzip_static_module \
  --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \
  --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/client/ \
  --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/proxy/ \
  --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/tmp/nginx/fcgi/ 

Then finally build and install:

make && make install