nginx : access.log and error.log file empty

Question

I have just installed nginx on Ubuntu 14.04 using the command

sudo apt-get install nginx

Now, when I open my browser and type in the address localhost then I am correctly shown the "Welcome to nginx" page. Also, I checked the config file located in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and found the following log settings:

access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

However, when I check these two files, both are empty. I have opened the localhost page multiple times but still the log files are empty. What might be wrong with my setup ?

Answer 1

I had the same issue after reinstalling nginx to newer version. Seems like log files ownership changed and new nginx couldn't save anything there.

Removing log files and reloading nginx worked for me:

$ sudo rm -f /var/log/nginx/*
$ sudo nginx -s reload

Answer 2

It looks like by default they are set to go to stdout and stderr.

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   11 Apr 27  2016 access.log -> /dev/stdout
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   11 Apr 27  2016 error.log -> /dev/stderr

So you can remove the symlinks and should be fine.

rm -f /var/log/nginx/*

Answer 3

For all of those whose, like me, came here to figure out why the logs file are empty, and did not realise that you might actually be inside a docker container like one of the comments on another answer suggests, just open a new shell and tail the logs with

docker logs {your-container-id-here} -f

Answer 4

By default Nginx image output the logs access/error to stdout/stderr.

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   11 Apr 27  2016 access.log -> /dev/stdout
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   11 Apr 27  2016 error.log -> /dev/stderr

We can also check the same by visit this Nginx Dockerfile, look for the comment # forward request and error logs to docker log collector

Now Use the below configuration in order to view the files.

I have changed file name

*error.log = error.logs

access.log = access.logs*

error_log /var/log/nginx/error.logs notice;
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.logs;