Semi-automating Nginx server block set up on Ubuntu with a script?

Hey lelandf:

I gave a go at a quick script that works as you describe. I decided to go the route of writing the Nginx server block file directly from the script using a bash here document.

It is by no means a pretty script, but it generally does what you’re manually doing:

#!/bin/bash

domain=$1
root="/var/www/$domain/html"
block="/etc/nginx/sites-available/$domain"

# Create the Document Root directory
sudo mkdir -p $root

# Assign ownership to your regular user account
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $root

# Create the Nginx server block file:
sudo tee $block > /dev/null <<EOF 
server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        root /var/www/$domain/html;
        index index.html index.htm;

        server_name $domain www.$domain;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}


EOF

# Link to make it available
sudo ln -s $block /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Test configuration and reload if successful
sudo nginx -t && sudo service nginx reload

You can put that in a file and then make it executable with chmod:

chmod +x script.sh

You should then be able to generate new server blocks by typing:

./script.sh <your_domain_here>

There are definitely improvements that can be made, but let me know how it works out for you.

I have a similar situation that I need to automate the Nginx installation with default port of 8080 instead of 80. The following pre-check needs to be fulfilled.

• check if any existing nginx or other web server is running
• check if port 8080 is listening
• mirror github.com/vibranze/test and serve it as a local page at http://localhost:8080/

Any helps are greatly appreciated. Thank you.