Installing Nginx with YUM

Ensure the system repositories are up to date:

yum update -y

Installl Nginx directly from the EPEL repository (if not already enabled):

yum install -y epel-release
yum install -y nginx

Enable and start the service:

chkconfig nginx on
service nginx start

Allow HTTP traffic through the firewall:

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
service iptables save
service iptables restart

Building Nginx from Source

Before compiling, verify and install required dependencies:

• Cmopiler toolchain:

yum groupinstall -y "Development Tools"

• PCRE (for regex support in location matching):

yum install -y pcre-devel

• zlib (for gzip compression):

yum install -y zlib-devel

• OpenSSL (for HTTPS support):

yum install -y openssl-devel

Download and extract the source archive (e.g., version 1.14.2):

wget https://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.14.2.tar.gz
tar -xzf nginx-1.14.2.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.14.2

Configure the build with common modules and install prefix:

./configure \
  --prefix=/opt/nginx \
  --sbin-path=/opt/nginx/bin/nginx \
  --conf-path=/opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf \
  --error-log-path=/opt/nginx/logs/error.log \
  --http-log-path=/opt/nginx/logs/access.log \
  --pid-path=/opt/nginx/run/nginx.pid \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --with-http_gzip_static_module

make && make install

Create a basic init script at /etc/init.d/nginx for service management:

#!/bin/bash
# chkconfig: - 85 15
# description: Nginx is a high-performance web server

NGINX_BIN="/opt/nginx/bin/nginx"
NGINX_CONF="/opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf"

start() {
  echo "Starting Nginx..."
  $NGINX_BIN -c $NGINX_CONF
}

stop() {
  echo "Stopping Nginx..."
  $NGINX_BIN -s stop
}

reload() {
  echo "Reloading Nginx configuration..."
  $NGINX_BIN -s reload
}

case "$1" in
  start)  start ;;
  stop)   stop ;;
  reload) reload ;;
  restart) stop; sleep 1; start ;;
  *) echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|reload|restart}" ;;
esac

Make it exectuable and register it:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx
chkconfig --add nginx
chkconfig nginx on

Start the daemon:

service nginx start

Verify operation:

ps aux | grep nginx
netstat -tlnp | grep :80

Uninstalling Nginx

For YUM-installed Nginx:

yum remove -y nginx
rm -rf /etc/nginx /var/log/nginx

For source-installed Nginx (adjust paths if installation directory differs):

/opt/nginx/bin/nginx -s stop 2>/dev/null || true
rm -rf /opt/nginx
find /usr -name "*nginx*" -type d -exec rm -rf {} + 2>/dev/null
find /etc -name "*nginx*" -delete 2>/dev/null

Also clean up any residual init scripts or systemd units if previously registered.