# Disable default error\_log? **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [May 10, 2012, 10:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-default-error-log/219650 "2012-05-10T10:08:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gurdipe\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b77776/32.png) [@Gurdipe\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Gurdipe_D)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 10:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-default-error-log/219650/1 "2012-05-10T10:08:32Z")
Hi, It seems something in nginx has changed: I can no longer run it in isolation as a user. Even if I disable or move all log files to a place the user has control over, nginx will still try to open “/var/log/nginx/error.log”. Is this path hard-coded, or is it possible to change it? This the output I get when trying to run nginx with a custom configuration file: $ nginx -g ‘error\_log /dev/null crit;’ -q -c mynginx.conf nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() “/var/log/nginx/error.log” failed (13: Permission denied) – Johan B. ---
**Author:** ![mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrcoffe)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-default-error-log/219650/2 "2012-05-12T01:06:46Z")
On 10 May 2012 09:07, Johan B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > $ nginx -g ‘error\_log /dev/null crit;’ -q -c mynginx.conf > nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() > “/var/log/nginx/error.log” failed (13: Permission denied) [GitHub - nginxinc/nginx-wiki: ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki section of https://www.nginx.com · GitHub](http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxMainModule#error_log) seems to suggest that you’ll have this problem since 0.7.53. Does that fit in with the timeline of your “something […] has changed”, above? If so, “known issue”. If not, something else may have changed - perhaps the order in which the -g/-c parameters are examined (a complete guess, of course) - and you should continue shouting about it 🙂 ## J Jonathan M. Oxford, London, UK > **[Jonathan Matthews :: Words Typed, Great Rates For Cash](https://www.jpluscplusm.com)** ---
**Author:** ![mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrcoffe)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-default-error-log/219650/3 "2012-05-14T16:59:55Z")
On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 1:06 AM, Jonathan M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > [GitHub - nginxinc/nginx-wiki: ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki section of https://www.nginx.com · GitHub](http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxMainModule#error_log) seems to suggest that > you’ll have this problem since 0.7.53. Does that fit in with the > timeline of your “something […] has changed”, above? > > If so, “known issue”. Hmm, I’ve gone through my apt logs (debian), and this is what I get: 0. nginx is installed 1. upgrade: 1.1.17-2 → 1.1.18-1 2. upgrade: 1.1.18-1 → 1.1.19-1 I cannot see any trace of an nginx older than 1.1.17-2, which I’m guessing is newer than 0.7.53. So either I’ve had an old install of nginx which did not use the package system, or this problem did not exist with one of the versions listed. I can try downgrading and see if it changes anything or not. – Johan B. ---
**Author:** ![mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrcoffe)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-default-error-log/219650/4 "2012-05-15T14:54:57Z")
On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Jonathan M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On 14 May 2012 15:58, Johan B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > I can try downgrading and see if it changes anything or not. > > Since nginx is a single binary, I suggest you might be able to extract > the binary from the old package and have both on the system in > parallel. This would let you give us the output from 2 versioned runs. > Kind of like Alright, so I checked out the SVN repo and built the earlier versions. No change. I tried 1.1.15-1.2.0 and every version gave the error. I must have somehow upgraded from a 0.\* version without my package manager noticing it. Strange. – Johan B. ---
**Author:** ![mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mrcoffe](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrcoffe)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-default-error-log/219650/5 "2012-05-15T13:52:50Z")
On 14 May 2012 15:58, Johan B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I can try downgrading and see if it changes anything or not. Since nginx is a single binary, I suggest you might be able to extract the binary from the old package and have both on the system in parallel. This would let you give us the output from 2 versioned runs. Kind of like ``` user@austin:~$ nginx-1.1.18 -g "blah" nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied) 2012/05/15 12:48:49 [emerg] 25887#0: unexpected end of parameter, expecting ";" in command line user@austin:~$ nginx-1.1.17 -g "blah" [... nginx is running fine] ``` With some -V invocations in there to show the compile-time settings, too. ## HTH, Jonathan Jonathan M. Oxford, London, UK > **[Jonathan Matthews :: Words Typed, Great Rates For Cash](https://www.jpluscplusm.com)**