Install Nginx on Mac OS from source (without brew)

install_nginx_macos_source.md

Install Nginx on Mac OS from source

no Homebrew required

1. Download Nginx

$ cd /usr/local/src
$ curl -OL http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.12.2.tar.gz
$ tar -xvzf nginx-1.12.2.tar.gz && rm nginx-1.12.2.tar.gz

2. Download the PCRE library

The PCRE library distribution (version 4.4 — 8.41) needs to be downloaded from the PCRE site and extracted. The rest is done by nginx’s ./configure and make. PCRE is required for the http_rewrite_module, and also for regular expressions support in the location directive.

$ curl -OL https://ftp.pcre.org/pub/pcre/pcre-8.41.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf pcre-8.41.tar.gz && rm pcre-8.41.tar.gz

3. Configure Nginx

See the full list of ./configure options: http://nginx.org/en/docs/configure.html.

$ cd nginx-1.12.2/

Compile nginx without SSL support

$ ./configure --with-pcre=../pcre-8.41/ 

with SSL support

Download OpenSSL sources and extract:

$ curl -OL https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.1.0.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf openssl-1.1.0.tar.gz && rm openssl-1.1.0.tar.gz 

Compile Nginx:

$ cd ../nginx-1.12.2/
$ ./configure --with-pcre=../pcre-8.41/ --with-http_ssl_module --with-openssl=/usr/local/src/openssl-1.1.0

4. Install Nginx

$ [sudo] make && make install

Add the nginx binary to $PATH:

export PATH="/usr/local/nginx/sbin:$PATH"

Can I skip install with SSL support ?

When i try to install without with SSL support. I got this error

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -f objs/Makefile
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `build'.
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -f objs/Makefile install
test -d '/usr/local/nginx' || mkdir -p '/usr/local/nginx'
test -d '/usr/local/nginx/sbin'
|| mkdir -p '/usr/local/nginx/sbin'
test ! -f '/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx'
|| mv '/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx'
'/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx.old'
cp objs/nginx '/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx'
cp: /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx: Permission denied
make[1]: *** [install] Error 1
make: *** [install] Error 2

anyone have same problem like me ?

Can I skip install with SSL support ?

When i try to install without with SSL support. I got this error

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -f objs/Makefile
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `build'.
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -f objs/Makefile install
test -d '/usr/local/nginx' || mkdir -p '/usr/local/nginx'
test -d '/usr/local/nginx/sbin'
|| mkdir -p '/usr/local/nginx/sbin'
test ! -f '/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx'
|| mv '/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx'
'/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx.old'
cp objs/nginx '/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx'
cp: /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx: Permission denied
make[1]: *** [install] Error 1
make: *** [install] Error 2

anyone have same problem like me ?

use chown to give permission to folder ex: sudo chown -R [user] nginx

This was helpful. I've used it.

This helped, but how do i configure the nginx though, i tried updating "/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf" its not taking effect.
Any suggestion?.

@henkosasih have you used "sudo"?

@sachinprabhuk please just this command to take your updated nginx.conf:
sudo /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -t -c /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

sudo nginx -s reload

Also, use this command to check which conf your servers are using? default or your updated?
ps -ef|grep nginx

@henkosasih have you used "sudo"?
Personally I had to use sudo because I did not have access to the /usr/local folder

i dont have src folder in usr/local what should i do?

https://ftp.pcre.org/pub/pcre/pcre-8.41.tar.gz is no longer available. Use https://ftp.exim.org/pub/pcre/pcre-8.41.tar.gz instead.

Here's a one-liner that automatically uses the latest versions and includes the Nginx JavaScript module (njs):

• https://github.com/AnthumChris/nginx-njs-macos

when installing Nginx with sudo gives me this error, can anybody help me please:

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -f objs/Makefile
cd ../pcre-8.41/
&& if [ -f Makefile ]; then /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make distclean; fi
&& CC="cc" CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe "
./configure --disable-shared
/bin/sh: line 0: cd: ../pcre-8.41/: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [../pcre-8.41//Makefile] Error 1
make: *** [build] Error 2

cd macPro/usr/local

manually created the src, nginx folders

curl -OL https://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.26.2.tar.gz
tar -xvzf nginx-1.26.2.tar.gz && rm nginx-1.26.2.tar.gz  
cd nginx-1.26.2/

curl -OL https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/download/pcre2-10.44/pcre2-10.44.tar.gz
tar -xvzf pcre2-10.44.tar.gz && rm pcre2-10.44.tar.gz   

curl -OL https://github.com/openssl/openssl/releases/download/openssl-3.4.0/openssl-3.4.0.tar.gz
tar -xvzf openssl-3.4.0.tar.gz && rm openssl-3.4.0.tar.gz   

./configure --with-pcre=../pcre2-10.44/ --with-openssl=../openssl-3.4.0/
sudo make && make install 
export PATH="/usr/local/nginx/sbin:$PATH"

cd /macPro/usr/local/nginx/sbin
nginx

http://localhost:80 >> Welcome to nginx!