nginx SSL sample configuration

ssl_nginx.conf

worker_processes  1;

events {
  worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    server { 
      listen 443;
      server_name localhost;
      ssl on;
      ssl_certificate /usr/local/nginx/conf/server.crt;
      ssl_certificate_key /usr/local/nginx/conf/server.key; 
      location / { 
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080; 
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; 
      } 
    }
}

Follow this to generate the .crt and the .key

# generate super secret private key
# (not really, this key and the certificate are "throwaway" items)
openssl genrsa -des3 -out ssl.key 1024

# generate the self-signed certificate
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -sha1 -days 365 -key ssl.key -out ssl.crt

# create decrypted version of key so that nginx can be started without a passphrase
openssl rsa -in ssl.key -out ssl.key.insecure
chmod 600 ssl.key.insecure

source: https://wincent.com/wiki/Generating_self-signed_SSL_certificates_for_use_with_nginx

Then just run
sudo nginx -c /full/path/to/ssl_nginx.conf