nginx emerg server directive is not allowed here

Question

I have reconfigured nginx but i can t get it to restart using the following config   conf   server   listen 80  server name www example com  return 301  scheme   example com request uri      server   listen 80  server name example com   access log  var log nginx access log  error log   var log nginx error log   location  robots txt       alias  path to robots txt      access log off      log not found off     location    favicon ico   access log off  log not found off     location         proxy pass header Server      proxy set header Host  http host      proxy redirect off          proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr      proxy set header X-Scheme  scheme      proxy set header X-Forwarded-For  proxy add x forwarded for      proxy connect timeout 30      proxy read timeout 30      proxy pass http   127 0 0 1 8000     location  static       expires 1M      alias   path to staticfiles        after running sudo nginx -c conf -t to test the configuration the following error is returned i can t figure out what is really the problem  nginx   emerg   server  directive is not allowed here in     etc nginx sites-available config 1 nginx  configuration file  etc nginx sites-available config test failed

User · Answer

The path to the nginx conf file which is the primary Configuration file for Nginx - which is also the file which shall INCLUDE the Path for other Nginx Config files as and when required is  etc nginx nginx conf   You may access and edit this file by typing this at the terminal   cd  etc nginx    etc nginx  sudo nano nginx conf  Further in this file you may Include other files - which can have a SERVER directive as an independent SERVER BLOCK - which need not be within the HTTP or HTTPS blocks  as is clarified in the accepted answer above    I repeat - if you need a SERVER BLOCK to be defined within the PRIMARY Config file itself than that SERVER BLOCK will have to be defined within an enclosing HTTP or HTTPS block in the  etc nginx nginx conf file which is the primary Configuration file for Nginx    Also note -its OK if you define   a SERVER BLOCK directly not enclosing it within a HTTP or HTTPS block   in a file located at path  etc nginx conf d   Also to make this work you will need to include the path of this file in the PRIMARY Config file as seen below  -   http      include  etc nginx conf d   conf   includes all files of file type conf     Further to this you may comment out from the PRIMARY Config file   the line   http       include  etc nginx sites-available some file conf    Comment Out      include  etc nginx conf d   conf   includes all files of file type conf     and need not keep any Config Files in  etc nginx sites-available  and also no need to SYMBOLIC Link them to  etc nginx sites-enabled    kindly note this works for me - in case anyone think it doesnt for them or this kind of config is illegal etc etc   pls do leave a comment so that i may correct myself - thanks     EDIT  - According to the latest version of the Official Nginx CookBook   we need not create any Configs within -  etc nginx sites-enabled    this was the older practice and is DEPRECIATED now     Thus No need for the INCLUDE DIRECTIVE  include  etc nginx sites-available some file conf      Quote from Nginx CookBook page - 5         In some package repositories  this folder is named sites-enabled  and   configuration files are linked from a folder named site-available    this convention is depre- cated

User · Answer

That is not an nginx configuration file  It is part of an nginx configuration file   The nginx configuration file  usually called nginx conf  will look like   events             http               server                         The server block is enclosed within an http block   Often the configuration is distributed across multiple files  by using the include directives to pull in additional fragments  for example from the sites-enabled directory    Use sudo nginx -t to test the complete configuration file  which starts at nginx conf and pulls in additional fragments using the include directive  See this document for more

User · Answer

Example valid nginx conf for reverse proxy  In case someone is stuck like me  where 10 x x x is the server where you are running the nginx proxy server and to which you are connecting to with the browser  and 10 y y y is where your real web server is running events     worker connections  4096      Default  1024   http    server      listen 80     listen      80      server name 10 x x x       location            proxy pass http   10 y y y 80          proxy set header Host  host              Here is the snippet if you want to do SSL pass through  That is if 10 y y y is running a HTTPS webserver  Here 10 x x x  or where the nignx runs is listening to port 443  and all traffic to 443 is directed to your target web server events     worker connections  4096      Default  1024    stream     server       listen     443      proxy pass 10 y y y 443         and you can serve it up in docker too  docker run --name nginx-container --rm --net host   -v  home core nginx nginx conf  etc nginx nginx conf nginx

User · Answer

There might be just a typo anywhere inside a file imported by the config  For example  I made a typo deep inside my config file   loccation  sense movies                      mp4               loccation instead of location   and this causes the error   nginx   emerg   server  directive is not allowed here in  etc nginx sites-enabled xxx xx 1

[nginx] nginx: [emerg] "server" directive is not allowed here

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