📋 Nginx Cheat Sheet

Common Commands

Operation	Command
Check config syntax	nginx -t
Reload config	nginx -s reload
Stop Nginx	nginx -s stop
Graceful shutdown	nginx -s quit
Reopen log files	nginx -s reopen
Show version	nginx -v
Show compile flags	nginx -V

Location Matching Rules

Syntax	Meaning	Example
=	Exact match	location = /api {}
^~	Prefix match (skip regex)	location ^~ /static {}
~	Regex match (case-sensitive)	location ~ .php$ {}
~*	Regex match (case-insensitive)	location ~* .(jpg|png)$ {}
/	Prefix match (longest match)	location /api/ {}

💡 Tip: 💡 Priority: = > ^~ > ~/~* (in order) > longest prefix

Common Variables

Variable	Meaning
$host	Request hostname
$request_uri	Full original request URI (with parameters)
$uri	Current URI (without parameters)
$remote_addr	Client IP
$remote_port	Client port
$server_port	Nginx listening port
$scheme	http or https
$request_method	GET/POST/PUT/DELETE
$content_type	Request Content-Type
$upstream_cache_status	Cache status (HIT/MISS/EXPIRED)

Security Headers Template

# One-click security hardening (recommended in the http block)
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'" always;

# Hide Nginx version number
server_tokens off;