<!--
  Copyright (C) Igor Sysoev
  Copyright (C) Nginx, Inc.
  -->

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

<article name="Command-line parameters"
         link="/en/docs/switches.html"
         lang="en"
         rev="4">

<section>

<para>
nginx supports the following command-line parameters:
<list type="bullet">

<listitem>
<literal>-?</literal> | <literal>-h</literal>&mdash;print help
for command-line parameters.
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-c <value>file</value></literal>&mdash;use an alternative
configuration <value>file</value> instead of a default file.
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-e <value>file</value></literal>&mdash;use an alternative
error log <value>file</value> to store the log
instead of a default file (1.19.5).
The special value <literal>stderr</literal> selects the standard error file.
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-g <value>directives</value></literal>&mdash;set
<link doc="ngx_core_module.xml">global configuration directives</link>,
for example,
<programlisting>
nginx -g "pid /var/run/nginx.pid; worker_processes `sysctl -n hw.ncpu`;"
</programlisting>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-p <value>prefix</value></literal>&mdash;set nginx path prefix,
i.e. a directory that will keep server files
(default value is <value>/usr/local/nginx</value>).
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-q</literal>&mdash;suppress non-error messages
during configuration testing.
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-s <value>signal</value></literal>&mdash;send a <i>signal</i>
to the master process.
The argument <i>signal</i> can be one of:
<list type="bullet">
<listitem>
<literal>stop</literal>&mdash;shut down quickly
</listitem>
<listitem>
<literal>quit</literal>&mdash;shut down gracefully
</listitem>
<listitem>
<literal>reload</literal>&mdash;reload configuration,
start the new worker process with a new configuration,
gracefully shut down old worker processes.
</listitem>
<listitem>
<literal>reopen</literal>&mdash;reopen log files
</listitem>
</list>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-t</literal>&mdash;test the configuration file: nginx checks the
configuration for correct syntax, and then tries to open files
referred in the configuration.
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-T</literal>&mdash;same as <literal>-t</literal>,
but additionally dump configuration files to standard output (1.9.2).
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-v</literal>&mdash;print nginx version.
</listitem>

<listitem>
<literal>-V</literal>&mdash;print nginx version, compiler version,
and configure parameters.
</listitem>

</list>
</para>

</section>

</article>