Imagine you’re attending a packed yoga retreat in Bali. It's hosted by one of the world’s most respected modern yogis — let’s say Tara Stiles, known for her down-to-earth, accessible approach to yoga. Her sessions draw hundreds of participants: beginners, influencers, seasoned practitioners — all trying to find a spot, breathe, and follow the flow.
But here's the catch: not everyone can just walk up to Tara and start a conversation or ask for a pose breakdown mid-session. There’s a flow, a system. A calm but organized assistant at the front checks you in, figures out your level, tells you where to sit, and answers the common questions before they ever reach Tara. This person doesn’t do yoga on your behalf — they just direct you so that everything runs smoothly.
That assistant? That’s Nginx in the web world.
Nginx (pronounced “engine-x”) is open-source software that’s mostly used as:
If you’ve ever run a web app — like something built with PHP Swoole, Node.js, or even Flask — you’ve probably had to deal with port numbers. Your app might run on port 8080, but visitors expect your site to be available at https://yoursite.com.
Nginx is the assistant who handles all the traffic at the front door, listens on port 80/443 (HTTP/HTTPS), and calmly directs it to the right room (your app running on another port).
Let’s go back to the yoga retreat.
If Tara tried to talk to everyone directly, she’d get overwhelmed. People asking questions, some speaking different languages, others arriving late, some needing adjustments — it would kill the experience.
Likewise, your app server (like Swoole running a PHP app) isn't built to deal with SSL certificates, connection pooling, retries, and traffic spikes. That’s what Nginx is great at — decoupling the messy, unpredictable outer world from the clean, focused app layer.
There are other traffic managers in the room too — each with their own vibe:
The minimalist, Kubernetes-native yogi with a sleek mat and smart watch. Traefik is modern and deeply integrated with Docker and Kubernetes. It autodetects services and routes traffic based on simple configuration files or container labels. Great for dynamic environments.
Use Traefik when:
The old-school teacher. Still wise, but has a thicker rulebook and sometimes slow to adapt. Apache is both a web server and a reverse proxy, but Nginx tends to outperform it in high-concurrency scenarios.
Use Apache when:
.htaccess filesThe new age guru who believes in security by default. Caddy auto-manages HTTPS and has a very readable config system. A good choice if you just want something simple and modern with zero config.
Use Caddy when:
PHP Swoole is a powerful asynchronous framework — think of it like an advanced yoga flow class that needs silence and space to shine. But Swoole apps usually bind to a non-standard port like 9501, and they don't handle HTTPS or static files well.
Here’s where Nginx steps in:
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/privkey.pem;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}
}This config:
Now your Swoole app can focus on handling business logic without worrying about SSL or headers.
In a world moving toward serverless and Kubernetes, Nginx might feel like the analog yoga mat in a room full of smart mirrors and heart-rate-tracking leggings. But it's stable, lightweight, battle-tested, and powerful — and it teaches you the fundamentals.
Whether you’re hosting a portfolio or scaling a real-time API with Swoole, Nginx gives you the flexibility to route, secure, and balance your traffic like a well-trained breath — intentional and in control.
🧘♀️
Namaste. Or, more appropriately: sudo systemctl restart nginx.
Got it — now we’re going fully clean, precise, and efficient. No fallbacks, no try_files, no rewrites, no WordPress, no FPM. Just straight:
9501)Here are 30 direct-use Nginx templates broken into:
server {
listen 80;
server_name static.example.com;
root /var/www/site;
index index.html;
}server {
listen 80;
root /var/www/site;
gzip on;
gzip_types text/css application/javascript application/json;
}/public directoryserver {
listen 80;
root /var/www/project/public;
}.html, .css, .jsserver {
listen 80;
root /var/www/secure;
location / {
location ~* .(html|css|js)$ { }
return 403;
}
}server {
listen 80;
root /var/www/files;
location / {
autoindex on;
}
}server {
listen 80;
root /var/www/site;
location / {
autoindex off;
}
}location ~* .(css|js|png|jpg|svg|woff2?)$ {
expires 1y;
access_log off;
}server {
listen 80;
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}location /files/ {
root /var/www/public;
add_header Content-Disposition "attachment";
}location ~ /. {
deny all;
}server {
listen 80;
root /var/www/public;
allow 192.168.1.0/24;
deny all;
}location /en/ {
root /var/www/site;
}
location /fr/ {
root /var/www/site;
}location / {
expires off;
add_header Cache-Control "no-store";
}location /downloads/ {
root /data;
sendfile on;
tcp_nopush on;
}server {
listen 80;
server_name cdn.example.com;
root /srv/cdn;
location ~* .(js|css|png|jpg|svg|woff2?)$ {
expires 7d;
}
}server {
listen 80;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}
}location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}location / {
proxy_pass http://10.0.0.5:9501;
}location / {
proxy_pass http://172.18.0.3:9501;
}/api/ proxied to Swoolelocation /api/ {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
}location / {
client_max_body_size 5M;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}location / {
proxy_set_header X-App-Version "v1.0.0";
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}access_log /var/log/nginx/swoole-access.log;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}server {
listen 443 ssl;
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/cert.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/key.pem;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}
}server {
server_name api.example.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}
}location /backend/ {
rewrite ^/backend/(.*)$ /$1 break;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}location /ws/ {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
}location /api1/ {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
}
location /api2/ {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9502;
}location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9501;
proxy_buffering off;
}