Types of NGINX Directives

Here are the different types of NGINX directives:

• Global directives are instructions that apply to the entire NGINX configuration. For example, the worker_processes directive specifies the number of worker processes that NGINX will create.

worker_processes 2;

• HTTP directives are instructions that apply to the HTTP protocol. For example, the gzip directive enables gzip compression for HTTP responses.

gzip on;

• Server directives are instructions that apply to a specific server block. A server block is a configuration that defines a virtual host. For example, the listen directive specifies the port that a server block will listen on.

server {
  listen 80;
}

• Location directives are instructions that apply to a specific location within a server block. A location is a path that NGINX will match against the requested URI. For example, the root directive specifies the directory that NGINX will serve static files from.

server {
  listen 80;

  location / {
    root /var/www/html;
  }
}

Here is an example of a complete NGINX configuration:

worker_processes 2;

http {
  gzip on;

  server {
    listen 80;

    location / {
      root /var/www/html;
    }
  }
}

This configuration will create a web server that listens on port 80 and serves static files from the /var/www/html directory.

Here are some additional examples of NGINX directives:

• Error directives are instructions that control how NGINX handles errors. For example, the error_log directive specifies the file that NGINX will write error messages to.

• Logging directives are instructions that control how NGINX logs requests and responses. For example, the access_log directive specifies the file that NGINX will write access logs to.

• Timeout directives are instructions that specify how long NGINX will wait for a client to send a request or for a server to send a response. For example, the client_max_body_size directive specifies the maximum size of a client request body.

Array, action, and normal directives

• Array directives are directives that can take multiple values. For example, the access_log directive can take multiple values, one for each log file that NGINX should write to.

access_log logs/access.log main;
access_log logs/error.log error;

In this example, NGINX will write access logs to both the logs/access.log and logs/error.log files.

• Action directives are directives that do not take any values. For example, the rewrite directive does not take any values. The rewrite directive tells NGINX to rewrite the requested URI before sending the request to the backend server.

rewrite ^/old-url$ /new-url permanent;

In this example, NGINX will rewrite requests for the /old-url URI to the /new-url URI.

• Normal directives are directives that take one value. For example, the root directive takes one value, which is the directory that NGINX should serve static files from.

root /var/www/html;

In this example, NGINX will serve static files from the /var/www/html directory.

Here is a table that summarizes the different types of directives in NGINX:

For more information on NGINX directives, please refer to the NGINX documentation: http://nginx.org/en/docs/dirindex.html.

I hope this explanation of the types of directives in NGINX is helpful. Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions.