# Is nginx.conf file dynamically updatable **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [May 2, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930 "2010-05-02T13:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/1 "2010-05-02T13:22:06Z")
Inorder to make a simple UI for editing nginx.conf. I need a way to edit nginx.conf without having to open it up in a text editor. Does nginx have an api that i can use to edit information that is inside nginx.conf. This will help newbies add virtual host information and edit parameters via a UI. ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/2 "2010-05-02T23:15:35Z")
There’s no API that I know of, unless you want to make your own module. You could try having a separate directory for virtual hosts included and use a database to store and generate the configuration. It’d be a lot easier than trying to interpret the configuration as well. ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/3 "2010-05-03T15:08:25Z")
So I store the configuration in a database or xml file or whatever, and then generate the conf file from it. thank you. ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/4 "2010-05-03T15:25:58Z")
On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 3:07 PM, Ziyad S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > So I store the configuration in a database or xml file or whatever, and > then generate the conf file from it. > thank you. Also, using a templating system with a scripting language (say, erb + ruby or whatever you’re comfortable with) or the good old m4 may be viable, and probably simpler to use and implement. This is very easy and very convenient if you have to generate lots of different configurations (say, for n virtual hosts, or n virtual hosts on n servers) but which all share a limited number of prototype configurations. Bye ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/5 "2010-05-03T18:37:57Z")
I have a php command line script that builds separate conf files in one of my servers and does simple string replacement. Also remember you can use includes so you can leave the main nginx.conf alone and have it include stuff from another directory you write out… ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/6 "2010-05-04T12:48:56Z")
nginx.conf file in inf format or any other template based format would have been the easiest thing to do. perhaps future version of nginx can go down this route. ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/7 "2010-05-04T13:05:55Z")
On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Ziyad S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > nginx.conf file in inf format or any other template based format would have been the easiest thing to do. perhaps future version of nginx can go down this route. I advocate the templating way.. but I hope it doesn’t get into nginx properly. Managing the generation of it’s own configuration files is generally a bad idea… then why not make coffee as well? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/8 "2010-05-07T10:10:18Z")
agree that hierarchy in inf will be ugly. you have to be a guru in regular expressions to create a UI for the current nginx configuration format. with xml, json yaml etc their are plenty of libraries that can read and right them easily. Or Nginx can provide an api that i can use to read and write nginx.conf files. that’s for Igor to decide. ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 10:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/9 "2010-05-07T10:19:40Z")
json is great for interchange but i don’t think it’s a decent readable syntax. xml really is king there, still, imho. anyway - you could take the C code that parses the nginx configuration and make a PHP module or something out of it 😉 ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/10 "2010-05-07T12:21:26Z")
Why would you want a UI anyway? Unfortunately, to be a web developer, you will have to have some kind of understanding of a few things like a server-side language, SQL, webserver configs, javascript, maybe CSS, etc. A UI is avoiding the problem. If you find the nginx configs to complicated (and I definitely don’t), then maybe the answer is a suggestion to change the configs for readability, not scriptability. ---
**Author:** ![myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@myschizobuddy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/myschizobuddy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-nginx-conf-file-dynamically-updatable/187930/11 "2010-05-04T17:58:38Z")
the syntax right now is great. very structured and simple. (my only complaint is how location blocks work, partly is syntax and partly is just how it works) otherwise i think it is great. anything can be scripted and anything can have a UI thrown onto it. i don’t see how inf or xml or anything would make it any easier to have to make a UI for different location blocks, rewrite rules, other complex, and other freeform, non-cookie-cutter kind of configuration items. besides, infs are one-dimensional, creating a hierarchy on that would be ugly and hard to read.