nginx with passenger

Question

I'm trying to move from Apache + Passenger to Nginx + passenger on my Ubuntu Lucid Lynx box.

When I install passenger:

sudo gem install passenger

and

cd /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.14/bin
sudo ./passenger-install-nginx-module

everything is fine (no error). Nginx is downloaded and compiled and installed at the same time (when selecting the first option during passenger installation). By default it is installed in /opt/nginx.

I end up with the configuration file /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf; This conf file was automatically updated with passenger config). The thing I do not understand is that I also have the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. What is the purpose of this one when it seems that the conf file in /opt/... is the main one?

When I run /etc/init.d/nginx start, it starts correclty saying that /etc/nginx/nginx.conf is ok. Does it mean that it does not check the other conf file?

I updated /etc/init.d/nginx script and added /opt/nginx/sbin at the beginning of the PATH and it seems the correct conf file is taken into account. It seems like I have two nginx installations where I only relied on passenger to install it.

Answer 1

You did end up with 2 Nginx installations:

1. The one installed globally by your OS's package manager (/usr/sbin/nginx). This uses /etc/nginx/nginx.conf as configuration file by default.
2. The one installed by Phusion Passenger (/opt/nginx/sbin/nginx). This uses /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf as configuration file by default.

Only (2) has Phusion Passenger support. Ignore (1) and do not use it.