How to run nginx master process with different user

Question

A/c to http://wiki.nginx.org/CoreModule#user

master process used to run with root user, is it possible to run nginx mater process with different user?

Answer 1

It is possible to run the nginx master process with a different user by just running the init script as non root (i.e. /etc/init.d/nginx start).

If this is really what you want to do, you will need to ensure the log and pid directories (usually /var/log/nginx & /var/run/nginx.pid) are writable for that user, and all your listen calls are for ports greater than 1024 (because binding to ports <=1024 requires root privileges).

In most situations however, you run the nginx master process as root and specify the user directive so that nginx workers processes run as that user.