Nginx virtual host example for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

hosts

# Location: /mnt/c/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   virtualhost.local www.virtualhost.local

index.php

<?php
// Location: /mnt/c/server/www/virtualhost.local/html/index.php
phpinfo();

symlink.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Location: Anywhere
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/virtualhost.local.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/virtualhost.local.conf;
sudo service nginx restart;

virtualhost.local.conf

# Location: /etc/nginx/sites-available/virtualhost.local.conf
server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;
        
        root /mnt/c/server/www/virtualhost.local/html;
        
        index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        
        server_name virtualhost.local www.virtualhost.local;
        
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
        
        location ~ \.php {
                include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
        }
        
        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
}

1. Create a new virtual host configuration file sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/virtualhost.local.conf
2. Add your new domain to the hosts file sudo nano /mnt/c/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts
3. Create a new symlink for your virtual host sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/virtualhost.local.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/virtualhost.local.conf and restart Nginx sudo service nginx restart
4. Create and test your virtual host with an index file sudo nano /mnt/c/server/www/virtualhost.local/html/index.php

Note: replace virtualhost.local with your own virtual domain. You may also need to replace /mnt/c/server/www/ with your server location.

You saved my life, man ❤

Thanks.

Sometimes I forgot to edit hosts file on windows.

Thanks. Clear, concise, works.

WSL + Ubuntu 18.04 / MariaDB 10.4 / PHP 7.3-FPM / NGINX 1.14.0

Thanks for this. I was hoping maybe you had something in your steps that I somehow missed, but I had done everything the same. I cannot get my local domain to resolve. It just spins for a second or so then shows the 'site cannot be reached' error. I can get to the default nginx page by using localhost, 127.0.0.1 and through the IP of the wsl instance as well, but it just fails to resolve the domain as registered in my hosts file. thoughts?

@z1haze every instance is different but double check your hosts file. Make sure your symlink is correct. And triple check for typos. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks