How to verify if nginx is running or not?

Question

After running an ASP.NET vNext project on my local machine I was trying to figure out how I can run it on nginx as it looks to be a recommended choice

Following jsinh's blog, I installed it using:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx -y

I was trying to understand whether it is working or not by using:

ifconfig eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2}'

After running

sudo service nginx start
sudo service nginx stop

However, the output is always the same:

How to verify if nginx is running or not?

Nginx has nothing to do with `ifconfig`. Why not to use `service nginx status`? — Alexey Ten, Feb 05 '16 at 10:23

score 230 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 29 '20 at 22:23

230

Looking at the requirement you have, the below command shall help:

service nginx status

edited Apr 29 '20 at 22:23

Captain Jack Sparrow

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answered Feb 16 '16 at 13:23

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And what if `service` isn't available? – fraxture Sep 30 '18 at 11:01
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If service is not available, then can use this: sudo /etc/init.d/nginx status – Biranchi Jan 09 '19 at 06:50

score 34 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 05 '16 at 19:23

34

You could use lsof to see what application is listening on port 80:

sudo lsof -i TCP:80

answered Feb 05 '16 at 19:23

Cole Tierney

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sudo lsof -i was it for me – Judy007 Jul 08 '17 at 22:00
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@Sizzling Could it be listening on a different port or not running? – Cole Tierney Dec 06 '19 at 16:07

score 26 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 28 '17 at 17:12

26

This is probably system-dependent, but this is the simplest way I've found.

if [ -e /var/run/nginx.pid ]; then echo "nginx is running"; fi

That's the best solution for scripting.

answered Sep 28 '17 at 17:12

aleclarson

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Doesn't this fail if nginx has died abruptly? – user541686 Apr 22 '19 at 20:20
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@Mehrdad it surely does, there is absolutely no guarantee that something will clean up this pid file, so this "solution" is definetely unreliable. – Bob Aug 23 '19 at 17:17

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 17 '19 at 17:54

20

If you are on mac machine and had installed nginx using

brew install nginx

then

brew services list

is the command for you. This will return a list of services installed via brew and their corresponding status.

answered Jul 17 '19 at 17:54

Gurmeet Singh

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score 17 · Answer 5 · answered May 01 '19 at 03:18

17

The modern (systemctl) way of doing it:

systemctl is-active nginx

You can use the exit value in your shell scripts as follows:

systemctl -q is-active nginx && echo "It is active, do something"

answered May 01 '19 at 03:18

Selcuk

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score 13 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 11 '21 at 13:10

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service nginx status will work on a non-systemd based version.

On systemd based versions such as Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS and above, make use of the command below;

systemctl status nginx

answered Aug 11 '21 at 13:10

nyedidikeke

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score 11 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 28 '20 at 15:37

11

For Mac users

I found out one more way: You can check if /usr/local/var/run/nginx.pid exists. If it is - nginx is running. Useful way for scripting.

Example:

if [ -f /usr/local/var/run/nginx.pid ]; then
   echo "Nginx is running"

fi

answered Apr 28 '20 at 15:37

Dkyrii

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score 4 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 02 '19 at 06:38

None of the above answers worked for me so let me share my experience. I am running nginx in a docker container that has a port mapping (hostPort:containerPort) - 80:80 The above answers are giving me strange console output. Only the good old 'nmap' is working flawlessly even catching the nginx version. The command working for me is:

 nmap -sV localhost -p 80

We are doing nmap using the -ServiceVersion switch on the localhost and port: 80. It works great for me.

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 09 '19 at 06:53

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Can also use the following code to check the nginx status:

   sudo /etc/init.d/nginx status

answered Jan 09 '19 at 06:53

Biranchi

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score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 23 '20 at 15:07

4

The other way to see it in windows command line :

tasklist /fi "imagename eq nginx.exe"

INFO: No tasks are running which match the specified criteria.

if there is a running nginx you will see them

answered Mar 23 '20 at 15:07

Hamit YILDIRIM

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Lex Li · Answer 11 · 2016-02-05T10:21:50.127

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Not sure which guide you are following, but if you check out this page,

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-nginx-on-ubuntu-14-04-lts

It uses another command

ip addr show eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2; }' | sed 's/\/.*$//'

and also indicates what result is expected.

edited Feb 05 '16 at 10:21

answered Feb 05 '16 at 10:11

Lex Li

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@student that post is too old for a moving target such as ASP.NET Core, and it misses so many details. – Lex Li Feb 05 '16 at 10:23
Fine, at least it gives me a starting point. If you can show any newer alternative? – Zameer Ansari Feb 05 '16 at 15:54

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 07 '23 at 11:24

Running the sudo nginx again gives you the following error This indicates that the nginx is running.

or the simple thing you can do is, check if the system that depends on nginx to run like the webapp you might be running, is it working when you hit that particular port

How to verify if nginx is running or not?

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