How to Choose and Manage Nginx Modules and Process Modes

Introduction

Nginx, like Apache, uses a modular architecture, but unlike Apache’s hot‑plug approach, adding or removing a module in Nginx requires recompilation.

Selecting Applicable Nginx Modules

In the Nginx (1.8.0) directory, run ./configure --help to list installed modules:

In the output, --with-XXX indicates a module that can be enabled, while --without-XXX indicates a module that is disabled by default. Modules listed with --without-XXX are included in the default build; those with --with-XXX are not compiled unless explicitly requested. If both flags appear for a module, the build system decides based on the system environment.

Installing Third‑Party Nginx Modules

When configuring Nginx, the --add-module option is used to include third‑party modules. For example:

--add-module=/root/nginx-accesskey-2.0.3

This adds a hot‑link protection module.

Nginx Process Management

Nginx operates in two process modes: Single and Master. Single mode runs a single process via ngx_single_process_cycle. Master mode consists of one master process and multiple worker processes, which is the typical deployment model.

On Linux kernels 2.6 and newer, Nginx uses the epoll event model, which efficiently handles large numbers of simultaneous connections.