Set up NGINX web server¶

1 Install¶

1.1 Install on macOS using MacPorts¶

sudo port install nginx

1.2 Install on macOS using Homebrew¶

brew install nginx

2 Configure¶

Once NGINX is installed, use files given in this directory to configure the installation. First you will need to clone this repository in order to copy configuration files and websites:

cd ~/projects
git clone git@github.com:netgen/local-development-setup.git

They you will also need to find the location of configuration files and logs, which depends on the OS and package manager.

2.1 If using macOS with MacPorts¶

Copy the configuration files to the configuration directory:

sudo cp -r ~/projects/local-development-setup/nginx/* /opt/local/etc/nginx

Don’t forget to edit file /opt/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf and change user and user group.

Create a directory where configuration for the enabled sites will be located:

sudo mkdir /opt/local/etc/nginx/sites-enabled

Now position into the created directory and symlink all available site configurations:

cd /opt/local/etc/nginx/sites-enabled
sudo ln -s ../sites-available/* ./

Paths in the copied configuration files are already correct for macOS using MacPorts, so no adjustments are needed.

To finish this step set permissions on the log directory:

sudo chown -R brale:staff /opt/local/var/log/nginx

2.2 If using macOS with Homebrew¶

Copy the configuration files to the configuration directory:

cp -r ~/projects/local-development-setup/nginx/* /usr/local/etc/nginx

Don’t forget to edit file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and change user and user group.

Create a directory where configuration for the enabled sites will be located:

mkdir /usr/local/etc/nginx/sites-enabled

Now position into the created directory and symlink all available site configurations:

cd /usr/local/etc/nginx/sites-enabled
ln -s ../sites-available/* ./

Since the configuration files were created for NGINX installed on MacOS with MacPorts, you will need to update them with paths that are correct for MacOS with Homebrew.

In case you use GNU sed (you will know if you do), execute the following on the command line:

cd /usr/local/etc/nginx
find . -type f -exec sed -i 's/\/opt\/local/\/usr\/local/g' {} +

Otherwise, execute:

cd /usr/local/etc/nginx
LC_ALL=C find . -type f -exec sed -i '' 's/\/opt\/local/\/usr\/local/g' {} +

3 Link SSL certificates¶

SSL certificates created in one of the previous steps need to be linked to the NGINX configuration directory.

3.1 If using macOS with MacPorts¶

Execute on the command line:

cd /opt/local/etc/nginx
sudo ln -s ~/ssl/server.crt
sudo ln -s ~/ssl/server.key

3.2 If using macOS with Homebrew¶

Execute on the command line:

cd /usr/local/etc/nginx
sudo ln -s ~/ssl/server.crt
sudo ln -s ~/ssl/server.key

4 Start the server¶

4.1 If using macOS with MacPorts¶

sudo port load nginx

This will also start the server automatically after a reboot.

4.2 If using macOS with Homebrew¶

sudo brew services start nginx

This will also start the server automatically after a reboot.

5 Installation of websites¶

Now you can install websites provided in websites directory in the root of the repository. Websites will be located in /var/www directory. While this folder already exists on Ubuntu, on macOS you need to generate it first:

sudo mkdir /var/www

Then we need to set the permissions on this directory:

sudo chown -R brale:staff /var/www

Now you can copy the websites to the created directory:

cp -r ~/projects/local-development-setup/websites/* /var/www

Verify that everything works as expected by opening:

The first website is your homepage, which you can freely customize as you find fit. Second website will give you PHP info page, useful to see the details of the particular PHP installation.

You can change the top-level domain to choose which PHP version will be used to serve the website.

Testing your website on a different device¶

This setup works with multiple custom local domains, which is not trivial to directly expose on a local network, since it would need to involve a DNS server.

However, is possible to expose a specific website on your local IP, which you can then use to open the website on a different device connected to your local network, for example smartphone or a tablet. To do that, uncomment the configuration block found in:

/usr/local/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/local_network_proxy

Then adjust the IP and local website address as needed.

After restarting nginx server, you should be able to use the IP to open the website on a different device which is also connected to your local network.