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We all know how to enable a website using apache on Linux. I'm pretty sure that we all agree on using the a2ensite command.

Unfortunately, there is no default equivalent command that comes with Nginx, but it did happen that I installed some package on ubuntu that allowed me to enable/disable sites and list them.

The problem is I don't remember the name of this package.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Please tell me the name of this package and the command name.

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    The assertion about a2ensite isn't true for CentOS Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 8:50

10 Answers 10

Reset to default
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If you have installed the nginx package from the Ubuntu repositories, you will have two directories.

/etc/nginx/sites-enabled and /etc/nginx/sites-available.

In the main nginx configuration, /etc/nginx/nginx.conf, you have the following line:

include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*.conf;

So basically to list all available virtualhosts, you can run the following command:

ls /etc/nginx/sites-available

To activate one of them, run the following command:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/www.example.org.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

The scripts that comes with Apache is basically just simple shell wrappers that does something similar as above.

After linking the files, remember to run sudo service nginx reload/ service nginx reload

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    Yeah I know how to that using the command line, thanks Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 9:02
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    Then I am unsure what you are really asking for. Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 9:04
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    remember to reload nginx server with: sudo service nginx reload Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 11:34
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    @pkhamre: When using Apache there are two scripts: a2ensite and a2dissite. They simply create and delete the symbolic links you describe, so they are faster ways of enabling and disabling. Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 19:59
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    Thanks for the constant upvotes on this old answer. If OP would accept this answer it would be epic :) Commented Dec 16, 2016 at 9:08
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Just create this script /usr/bin/nginx_modsite and make it executable with chmod 700 /usr/bin/nginx_modsite.

#!/bin/bash ## # File: # nginx_modsite # Description: # Provides a basic script to automate enabling and disabling websites found # in the default configuration directories: # /etc/nginx/sites-available and /etc/nginx/sites-enabled # For easy access to this script, copy it into the directory: # /usr/local/sbin # Run this script without any arguments or with -h or --help to see a basic # help dialog displaying all options. ## # Copyright (C) 2010 Michael Lustfield <[email protected]> # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without # modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions # are met: # 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright # notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. # 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright # notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the # documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. # # THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND # ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE # IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE # ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE # FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL # DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS # OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) # HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT # LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY # OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF # SUCH DAMAGE. ## # Default Settings ## NGINX_CONF_FILE="$(awk -F= -v RS=' ' '/conf-path/ {print $2}' <<< $(nginx -V 2>&1))" NGINX_CONF_DIR="${NGINX_CONF_FILE%/*}" NGINX_SITES_AVAILABLE="$NGINX_CONF_DIR/sites-available" NGINX_SITES_ENABLED="$NGINX_CONF_DIR/sites-enabled" SELECTED_SITE="$2" ## # Script Functions ## ngx_enable_site() { [[ ! "$SELECTED_SITE" ]] && ngx_select_site "not_enabled" [[ ! -e "$NGINX_SITES_AVAILABLE/$SELECTED_SITE" ]] && ngx_error "Site does not appear to exist." [[ -e "$NGINX_SITES_ENABLED/$SELECTED_SITE" ]] && ngx_error "Site appears to already be enabled" ln -sf "$NGINX_SITES_AVAILABLE/$SELECTED_SITE" -T "$NGINX_SITES_ENABLED/$SELECTED_SITE" ngx_reload } ngx_disable_site() { [[ ! "$SELECTED_SITE" ]] && ngx_select_site "is_enabled" [[ ! -e "$NGINX_SITES_AVAILABLE/$SELECTED_SITE" ]] && ngx_error "Site does not appear to be \'available\'. - Not Removing" [[ ! -e "$NGINX_SITES_ENABLED/$SELECTED_SITE" ]] && ngx_error "Site does not appear to be enabled." rm -f "$NGINX_SITES_ENABLED/$SELECTED_SITE" ngx_reload } ngx_list_site() { echo "Available sites:" ngx_sites "available" echo "Enabled Sites" ngx_sites "enabled" } ## # Helper Functions ## ngx_select_site() { sites_avail=($NGINX_SITES_AVAILABLE/*) sa="${sites_avail[@]##*/}" sites_en=($NGINX_SITES_ENABLED/*) se="${sites_en[@]##*/}" case "$1" in not_enabled) sites=$(comm -13 <(printf "%s\n" $se) <(printf "%s\n" $sa));; is_enabled) sites=$(comm -12 <(printf "%s\n" $se) <(printf "%s\n" $sa));; esac ngx_prompt "$sites" } ngx_prompt() { sites=($1) i=0 echo "SELECT A WEBSITE:" for site in ${sites[@]}; do echo -e "$i:\t${sites[$i]}" ((i++)) done read -p "Enter number for website: " i SELECTED_SITE="${sites[$i]}" } ngx_sites() { case "$1" in available) dir="$NGINX_SITES_AVAILABLE";; enabled) dir="$NGINX_SITES_ENABLED";; esac for file in $dir/*; do echo -e "\t${file#*$dir/}" done } ngx_reload() { read -p "Would you like to reload the Nginx configuration now? (Y/n) " reload [[ "$reload" != "n" && "$reload" != "N" ]] && invoke-rc.d nginx reload } ngx_error() { echo -e "${0##*/}: ERROR: $1" [[ "$2" ]] && ngx_help exit 1 } ngx_help() { echo "Usage: ${0##*/} [options]" echo "Options:" echo -e "\t<-e|--enable> <site>\tEnable site" echo -e "\t<-d|--disable> <site>\tDisable site" echo -e "\t<-l|--list>\t\tList sites" echo -e "\t<-h|--help>\t\tDisplay help" echo -e "\n\tIf <site> is left out a selection of options will be presented." echo -e "\tIt is assumed you are using the default sites-enabled and" echo -e "\tsites-disabled located at $NGINX_CONF_DIR." } ## # Core Piece ## case "$1" in -e|--enable) ngx_enable_site;; -d|--disable) ngx_disable_site;; -l|--list) ngx_list_site;; -h|--help) ngx_help;; *) ngx_error "No Options Selected" 1; ngx_help;; esac

How it works:

To list all the sites

$ sudo nginx_modsite -l

To enable site "test_website"

$ sudo nginx_modsite -e test_website

To disable site "test_website"

$ sudo nginx_modsite -d test_website
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  • in ngx_relaod function, I commented out the read and just make reload="y" since I run this via cron and didn't want the prompt at all. Thanks! Commented Nov 4, 2014 at 19:16
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    A pretty large script to wrap some standard one line commands. Commented Jun 2, 2016 at 14:30
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    @tobltobs Good programmers write code, great programmers steal code :) This makes a nice add to my collection of server imaging scripts. Commented Jul 10, 2016 at 13:39
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    @GhassenTelmoudi as the script you keep mentioning is a third party script, which is not even packaged by the creators (ubuntu) into the nginx package, your comment suggest to use a third party script over a (one line) command line alternative. This is how security vulnerabilities and unnecessarily complex dependency trees are created Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 21:40
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    Note that you dual-licensed the code: the footer of the page says user contributions are creative commons with attribution required, and your code has its own license. I'm pretty sure that means one may use it under either terms. Honestly, I think including a license in your stackexchange snippet is rather overkill... Commented Feb 2, 2019 at 11:49
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There's third-party nginx_ensite and nginx_dissite available.

Can be installed as quick as

git clone https://github.com/perusio/nginx_ensite.git cd nginx_ensite sudo make install

(see the repo, though)

Example usage: nginx_ensite example.org (see more at online man page).

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    This is barely an answer, is it? These commands are not present on my installation of nginx, on Ubuntu installed with apt-get. It seems like it is just a 3rd party script: github.com/perusio/nginx_ensite Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 19:53
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    First of all, thanks for answering :) And sorry for my comment, which perhaps sounds offensive, when I actually only wanted to point out that it was not very useful for me (at the time), because of it assuming too much from the reader. Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 9:32
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    You answered with two commands and a url, and even in the form of a question. As someone with my low level of experience, your answer would have sent me out there googling. Maybe I would find a helpful guide/tutorial/demo in 2 minutes, maybe I would be looking around for an hour and still be confused. What would have helped me back then was: "There are these tools nginx_ensite and nginx_dissite, it is a 3rd party script, download it from here, and they work this way, example, example". Ghassen's answer is more elaborate, more introductory, more helpful. I hope you understand what I mean :) Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 9:32
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    @MadsSkjern Well, you could have just clicked the link. :) Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:17
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NGINX

If you're using one of the official upstream packages of nginx from http://nginx.org/packages/, the best way is to navigate to the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory, and rename the affected file from having a .conf suffix to having a different one to disable the site:

sudo mv -i /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf{,.off}

Or the opposite to enable it:

sudo mv -i /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.com.conf{.disabled,}

This is because the default /etc/nginx/nginx.conf has the following include directive:

http { … include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; }

Debian/Ubuntu

However, if you're using a Debian/Ubuntu derivative, then in addition to conf.d, you may also have the evil non-standard sites-available and sites-enabled directories, some files under which may be sloppily included without regard to their extension:

http { … include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; }

As such, in Debian/Ubuntu, you might first have to figure out where the site config is located.

  • You could use the following command to get a list of all available sites by running find(1) to find all regular files matching the given mask:

    find /etc/nginx -maxdepth 2 -type f \( -path "*/conf.d/*.conf" -or -path "*/sites-*/*" \)

  • You could use the following command to get a list of all enabled sites:

    find /etc/nginx -maxdepth 2 \( -path "*/conf.d/*.conf" -or -path "*/sites-enabled/*" \)

Then to disable/enable sites on Debian/Ubuntu:

  • To disable a site: if the config is in conf.d, just rename the file to no longer have a .conf suffix; or if in sites-enabled, move it out of sites-enabled.

  • To enable a site, the best way would be to move it to /etc/nginx/conf.d, and rename to have a .conf suffix.

P.S. Why do I think Debian's include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; is evil? Try editing a couple of files in that directory, and have your emacs create the backup files (with the ~ suffix), then ask me again.

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    I'd like to point out that the issue with this answer lies in two erroneous assumptions regarding Debian and derivatives: 1) The purpose of conf.d directory is server-wide configuration like that for modules, plugins, fastcgi handlers etc and explicitly not to store host/vhost configurations in and 2) One should not edit any files in sites-enabled serverfault.com/a/825297/86189 Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 11:14
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    The issue you pointed at has absolutely no connection to this. I am wrong about conf.d as is , probably, the Debian maintainer of Nginx (or perhaps it's kept for compatibility with upstream). About not editing files in sites-enabled, it's not wishful thinking but the supposed worflow under Apache which they tried to emulate on Nginx. In apache it's quite obvious due to existance of a2ensite and a2dissite scripts. Unfortunately nothing of the sort is provided for Nginx which shows how low the maintainance quality of that package is on Debian. Both lack documentation, true. Commented Sep 7, 2017 at 8:12
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    ..I'll give you that (docs are abysmally lacking in this regard). However you're the first person running web servers on Debian I've talked to that was confused by this. Just a simple ls -al sites-enabled in either Apache or Nginx shows that the existing files in the directory are symlinks from -available, ditto for modules under Apache, along with provided a2enmod/a2dismod scirpts. Commented Sep 7, 2017 at 8:15
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    @Nuxwin, 2007 called, they want their learn-first-manage-later approach back. Noone learns the whole system anymore; I've also been using Debian for a quite a long time, and have never encountered a similar braindead available/enabled setup with any other package, especially for files that are meant to be user-generated and user-editable (e.g., comparing this with rc.d would not be appropriate). The amount of problems this setup generates speaks for itself. Commented Jan 22, 2018 at 21:12
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    @pzrq, you're equating a lot of unrelated things; the available/enabled has nothing to do with apache nor debian; failing evidence to the contrary, it's basically just something that some maintainer sneaked into the right place at the right time when noone was looking, and it stuck; there's little reason to continue using it if you're already spending the resources to transition to nginx, which would already require config rewrites to get rid of .htaccess, for example — might as well standardise your config with all the clouds and distros in mind, which is easy enough with conf.d as-is. Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 21:25
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Link with full path:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site_1.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ service nginx reload
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  • This doesn't contain the full path to the link destination so it will be created relative to the current directory, which is probably not what you want. Commented Aug 20, 2021 at 20:45
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Compact ngensite/ngdisite shell scripts

After reading the replies here while setting up a new Debian server, then going off to do some research, I made a couple of readable shell scripts to help me enable/disable sites on a server with at least some security (root disabled, non-default ports, etc.). Once the files are executable with chmod +x anyone with root access can call these scripts from anywhere as /usr/local/bin/ is in the Debian PATH by default.

These work (the way I've used for years) by creating and deleting aliases in sites_enabled so don't touch the contents of virtual hosts files in sites_available.

Enable site

in: /usr/local/bin/ngensite:

#!/bin/sh read -p "Website to enable: " site; ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/"$site" /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ echo "$site enabled. Now run 'service nginx reload'"

Then from the command-line: sudo ngensite

(The prompt will need the exact nginx virtualhosts config file).

Disable site

in: /usr/local/bin/ngdissite:

#!/bin/sh read -p "Website to disable: " site; rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/"$site" echo "$site disabled. Now run 'service nginx reload'"

Then from the command-line: sudo ngdissite

(The prompt requires the exact name of the nginx virtualhosts config file).

If you spot any issues in these (they're very simple but do the job for me) please comment.

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I know it's not technically correct, but I just mv the config in sites-available to sites-enabled. It works fine, don't live a complicated life.

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To enable:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

To disable:

unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/conf
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Another method is just to rename the site's config file to something that ends without .conf

E.g. sudo mv mysite.conf mysite.conf.disabled

Then reload nginx, and that vhost will fall back to the default.

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  • 4
    @Pyrite On Ubuntu 14.04 the extension doesn't mater as nginx.conf includes sites-enabled as include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; it only includes conf dir as *.conf Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 17:45
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    @GhassenTelmoudi as the script you keep mentioning is a third party script, which is not even packaged by the creators (ubuntu) into the nginx package, your comment suggest to use a third party script over a (one line) command line alternative. This is how security vulnerabilities and unnecessarily complex dependency trees are created. Commented Nov 4, 2016 at 11:45
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    @cnst I wouldn't go as far as call it evil, especially their choice of sites-available and sites-enabled as they do have merit and use. Somebody should probably just file a bug report for the true offending line in nginx conf to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*.conf; and they probably will as it's probably an oversight. But if you respect the Debian workflow you'll be editing files in sites-available anyway and symlinking the ones you want enabled into sites-enabled. Commented Sep 4, 2017 at 9:44
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    @cnst The why is quite self-evident isn't it? It enables you to enable and disable vhosts without deleting them, in a way that is identical on both apache and nginx. The fact that you are exclusively interested in nginx doesn't invalidate Debian maintainers' intent of providing the similar enable/disable method for both web servers. Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 11:10
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    @cnst the issue you pointed at has absolutely no connection to this. the same thing would happen if they kept the vhost configuration in conf.d. Commented Sep 7, 2017 at 8:07
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I want to submit my script written in Bash to accommodate this feature. It's called nginxsite → https://github.com/L1so/nginxsite/. For more info check the github link.

Enabling

To activate a site, replace (YOUR SITE) with your actual site domain (located in /etc/nginx/sites-available/).

sudo ngxensite (YOUR SITE)

Disabling

To deactivate a site, replace (YOUR SITE) with your actual site domain (located in /etc/nginx/sites-available/).

sudo ngxdissite (YOUR SITE)

Create server block

To create a site, replace (YOUR DOMAIN) with your actual domain.

sudo ngxcreate (YOUR DOMAIN)

Running ngxcreate without any argument will give you a prompt to enter desired site name, if you don't include tld, the script will give you .com domain.

$ sudo ngxcreate Please Enter a Domain Name (default TLD is .com): examplesite

Will save a new file named /etc/nginx/sites-available/examplesite.com

Delete server block

To delete a site, replace (YOUR DOMAIN) with your actual site domain.

sudo ngxdelete (YOUR DOMAIN)

Example given below.

root@mutiny:~# ngxdelete bar.co Removing --> /etc/nginx/sites-available/bar.co
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