Check The Syntax Of nginx Files

The syntax of nginx configuration files can be a bit finicky. On top of that, some nginx server commands can fail silently. Get more confidence by using the following command to check for syntax errors in those files:

$ [sudo] nginx -t

If there is an error, you might see something like this:

$ sudo nginx -t
nginx: [emerg] unexpected ";" in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:16
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

If all looks good, then you'll see this:

$ sudo nginx -t
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Tweet