<!DOCTYPE article SYSTEM "../../../dtd/article.dtd">

<article title="nginx/Windows usage"
         link="/en/docs/windows.html"
         lang="en">


<section>

<para>
nginx/Windows uses the native Win32 API (not the Cygwin emulation layer).
Currently only the <i>select</i> method is used as a notification method,
therefore you should not expect high performance and scalability.
Because of this and some known issues nginx/Windows is considered
as a <i>beta</i> version.
There is almost full-functionality in nginx/Windows as compared
with the Unix version,
except XSLT filter, image filter, GeoIP module, and embedded Perl language.
</para>

<para>
To install nginx/Windows, you should <a href="/en/download.xml">download</a>
the latest <development_version /> development version zipped file,
since the development branch contains all known fixes,
especially Windows related.
Then you should unzip the file,
go to the nginx-<development_version /> directory, and run nginx.
Here is an example for the drive C: root directory:

<programlisting>
cd c:\
unzip nginx-<development_version />.zip
cd nginx-<development_version />
start nginx
</programlisting>

You may run the <path>tasklist</path> command line utility
to see nginx processes:

<programlisting>
C:\nginx-<development_version />&gt;tasklist /fi "imagename eq nginx.exe"

Image Name           PID Session Name     Session#    Mem Usage
=============== ======== ============== ========== ============
nginx.exe            652 Console                 0      2 780 K
nginx.exe           1332 Console                 0      3 112 K
</programlisting>

One of the processes is the master process and another is the worker process.
If nginx will not start, you should look in
the <path>logs\error.log</path> file for the reason.
If the log file has not been created, the reason should be reported
in the Windows Event Log.
If you see an error page instead of the expected page, you should also look in
the <path>logs\error.log</path> file for the error reason.
</para>

<para>
nginx/Windows uses the directory where it has been run as the prefix
directory for relative paths in the configuration.
In the example above, the prefix directory is
<path>C:\nginx-<development_version />\</path>.
Paths in the configuration must be set in Unix style using forward slashes:

<programlisting>
access_log   logs/site.log;
root         C:/web/html;
</programlisting>
</para>

<para>
nginx/Windows runs as a standard console application, not a service,
and it can be managed using the following commands:

<table note="yes">

<tr>
<td width="20%">nginx -s stop</td>
<td>quick exit</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>nginx -s quit</td>
<td>graceful quit</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>nginx -s reload</td>
<td>
changing configuration,
starting a new worker,
quitting an old worker gracefully
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>nginx -s reopen</td>
<td>reopening log files</td>
</tr>

</table>
</para>

</section>

<section name="known_issues"
        title="Known issues">

<list>

<item>
Although several workers can be run, only one of them actually does any work.
</item>

<item>
A worker can handle no more than 1024 simultaneous connections.
</item>

<item>
The cache and other modules which require shared memory support do not work
in Windows Vista and later due to
address space layout randomization being enabled in these Windows versions.
</item>

</list>

</section>

<section name="possible_future_enhancements"
        title="Possible future enhancements">

<list>

<item>
Running as a service.
</item>

<item>
Using the I/O completion ports as notification method.
</item>

<item>
Using multiple worker threads inside single worker process.
</item>

</list>

</section>

</article>