nginx log path ---core x86 16.x

[Zhe]

core x86 16.x  nginx  /var/log/nginx should be a directory. right?

Code: [Select]

/var/log/nginx is file     ## wrong way?
sudo nginx
nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (20: Not a directory)

sudo nginx -c /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (20: Not a directory)

sudo nginx -t -c /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf -e /tmp/nginx_error.log         ##  pass .
nginx: the configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful


##########
/var/log/nginx/ is directory now
sudo rm -rf /var/log/nginx
sudo mkdir -p /var/log/nginx

sudo nginx -t -c /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
nginx: the configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: [emerg] open() "/var/log/nginx" failed (21: Is a directory)
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

sudo nginx -t -c /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf -e /tmp/nginx_error.log
nginx: the configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: [emerg] open() "/var/log/nginx" failed (21: Is a directory)
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

[Rich]

Hi Zhe
I briefly fired up nginx under TC16 x86. These were my results:

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tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log/
total 212
-rw-r--r--    1 root     staff        58837 Feb 12 21:41 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root             0 Feb 12 21:40 autologin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        148079 Feb 12 21:42 messages
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            40 Dec 12 02:09 nginx/
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     staff         2304 Feb 12 21:42 wtmp
tc@box:~$
tc@box:~$ sudo nginx
nginx: [emerg] open() "/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf" failed (2: No such file or directory)
tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log/
total 212
-rw-r--r--    1 root     staff        58837 Feb 12 21:41 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root             0 Feb 12 21:40 autologin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        148201 Feb 12 21:45 messages
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Feb 12 21:45 nginx/
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     staff         2304 Feb 12 21:42 wtmp
tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log/nginx/
total 4
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           118 Feb 12 21:45 error.log
tc@box:~$
It shows  /var/log/nginx  is a directory.

[andyj]

Try posting your nginx.conf file.

[Rich]

Hi andyj
That was directed at Zhe, right?

[Zhe]

Hi Rich. When it’s a directory, the configuration check fails.

Hi,andyj

my nginx.conf:

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user tc staff;
worker_processes  1;
error_log /tmp/nginx_error.log warn;
pid       /tmp/nginx.pid;
events {
    worker_connections  512;
}
http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_min_length 1024;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_types
        text/plain
        text/css
        text/javascript
        application/json
        application/javascript
        application/xml+rss
        image/svg+xml;

    client_body_temp_path /tmp/nginx/client;
    server_tokens off;

    server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;
        server_name xxxxx;
        return 301 https://$host:xxx$request_uri ;
    }

    server {
        listen xxx ssl;
        listen [::]:xxx ssl;
http2 on;
        server_name xxxxx;

        root /xxxx/web;
        index index.html;
        charset utf-8;
        autoindex off;
        ssl_certificate     /etc/xxxx/server-cert.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/xxxx/server-key.pem;
        ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

        add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
        add_header Referrer-Policy "no-referrer-when-downgrade" always;
        if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD|OPTIONS)$ ) {
            return 405;
        }

        location ~ /\. {
            deny all;
            access_log off;
            log_not_found off;
        }
        location ~* \.\. {
            deny all;
            return 403;
        }

........

    }
}


[Zhe]

my nginx.conf works fine when /var/log/nginx is a file.

I suspect the problem might lie elsewhere—it could be that different versions of Nginx lead to different behaviors, or it might be a compilation issue.

[andyj]

From the Makefile:

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objs/Makefile: test -d '$(DESTDIR)/var/log/nginx' \
objs/Makefile: || mkdir -p '$(DESTDIR)/var/log/nginx'

What I don't see is where you are using this path anywhere. It may be that there is a default behavior that is looking for "/var/log/nginx/whatever.log", but when there is no "whatever.log" then what is being checked is "/var/log/nginx" and because "nginx" is the last thing in the path it is being interpreted as a file and not as the directory that it is.

The configured error log path is "--error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log", but "--http-log-path=/var/log/nginx" is given as a directory path and not a file name so it could be misinterpreted as above. I can recompile it with something like "--http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log" and see if that changes what you are seeing.

[Rich]

Hi andyj
I ran through it again and can confirm Zhes findings.

Start with a clean  /var/log  directory:

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tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log
total 208
-rw-r--r--    1 root     staff        58837 Feb 13 10:09 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root             0 Feb 13 10:09 autologin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        147372 Feb 13 10:09 messages
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     staff         1536 Feb 13 10:09 wtmp
Load nginx:

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tc@box:~$ tce-load -i nginx
nginx.tcz: OK
The  /var/log/nginx  directory is part of the nginx.tcz file structure:

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tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log
total 212
-rw-r--r--    1 root     staff        58837 Feb 13 10:09 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root             0 Feb 13 10:09 autologin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        148146 Feb 13 10:12 messages
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            40 Dec 12 02:09 nginx/
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     staff         1536 Feb 13 10:09 wtmp
/var/log/nginx is empty:

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tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log/nginx
total 0
Version and configure options:

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tc@box:~$ nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.29.4
built by gcc 14.2.0 (GCC)
built with OpenSSL 3.5.2 5 Aug 2025
TLS SNI support enabled
configure arguments: --prefix=/usr/local --sbin-path=/usr/local/sbin/nginx --modules-path=/usr/local/lib/nginx/modules --conf-path=/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid --lock-path=/tmp/nginx/lock --user=nobody --group=nogroup --with-threads --with-file-aio --with-compat --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_v2_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_xslt_module=dynamic --with-http_image_filter_module=dynamic --with-http_sub_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_gunzip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_auth_request_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_degradation_module --with-http_slice_module --with-http_stub_status_module --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx --http-client-body-temp-path=/tmp/nginx/client --http-proxy-temp-path=/tmp/nginx/proxy --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/tmp/nginx/fastcgi --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/tmp/nginx/uwsgi --http-scgi-temp-path=/tmp/nginx/scgi --with-mail=dynamic --with-mail_ssl_module --with-stream=dynamic --with-stream_ssl_module --with-stream_realip_module --with-stream_ssl_preread_module
Copy all of the .default files to the nginx config directory:

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tc@box:~$ sudo cp /usr/local/etc/nginx/original/*.default /usr/local/etc/nginx/
Strip the  .default  extension from those files:

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tc@box:~$ for F in /usr/local/etc/nginx/*.default; do sudo mv -- "$F" "${F%.default}"; done
Try to start nginx:

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tc@box:~$ sudo nginx
nginx: [emerg] open() "/var/log/nginx" failed (21: Is a directory)
One slight twist. The file was written:

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tc@box:~$ ls -l /var/log/nginx
total 4
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            91 Feb 13 10:33 error.log
tc@box:~$ cat /var/log/nginx/error.log
2026/02/13 10:33:54 [emerg] 3920#3920: open() "/var/log/nginx" failed (21: Is a directory)

[Rich]

Hi andyj
Could it be this part from  nginx -V:

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--http-log-path=/var/log/nginx
I saw it configured in a build tutorial as:

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--http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log