This guide will help you install the Nginx web server for the FreeBSD operating system. First you need to install or upgrade (if already installed) the ports tree using the following command:

portsnap fetch extract

It usually takes a few minutes to download, and after the download is complete, you will proceed to the next step, which will be described.

Upgrade pkg

To install these ports that were recently downloaded, you need to update pgk by running the following command:

cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/pkg
make reinstall

Then you can already run the command to clean the directory from all temporary files:

make clean

Nginx installation

This command configures, compiles, and installs the Nginx web server

cd /usr/ports/www/nginx
make config-recursive

You will get the configuration pop up, and when you can choose the following: HTTP_GZIP_STATIC, HTTP_SSL, HTTP_DAV_EXT. It may be desirable to include other modules for compiling with Nginx. Then, install Nginx

make install

After the installation is complete, you will need to run the following to clear the directory of any files that will be created by this step:

make clean 

Configure Аutorun

To start nginx when your server boots up, edit /etc/rc.conf. You can edit this file by running ee /etc/rc.conf. Alternatively you can use nano. Nano can be installed by running pkg install nano

In /etc/rc.conf. you need to add nginx_enable = “YES” to the end of the file. Once this is done, you can proceed to the next step.

Starting Nginx

To start, enter the command:

service nginx start

If the launch was successful, you can see the output, which will be approximately the following:

Performing sanity check on nginx configuration:
nginx: the configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Starting nginx.

To make sure Nginx is configured correctly, you can go to your IP address in a web browser. Go to http://0.0.0.0 (change the IP accordingly). If successful, you will see the “Welcome to Nginx!” Page