Nginx: A Comprehensive Guide

Nginx [engine x] was initially developed by Lgor Sysoev. According to Netcraft data, by September 2020, Nginx served or proxied 25.76% of websites, holding approximately 34.03% of the market share.

Nginx is widely used as:

HTTP server

Reverse proxy server

Mail proxy server

General TCP/UDP proxy

The Nginx service consists of a Master process and multiple Worker processes. The Master process handles configuration reading and maintenance, while Worker processes manage actual request processing.

Nginx's 11 execution phases and corresponding HTTP modules are detailed, including the post_read phase for obtaining the original client IP address and the rewrite phase for URL manipulation.

The realip module is used to obtain the client's real IP address, with configuration examples and practical testing results.

The rewrite module includes directives like break, if, return, and rewrite, with examples demonstrating their usage in modifying request paths and handling conditional logic.

The access phase involves modules like ngx_http_access_module for IP-based access control and ngx_http_auth_basic_module for HTTP basic authentication.

The auth_request module allows delegating authentication to a separate service, with configuration examples and testing results.