# Nginx on Debian: dynamic network interfaces **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [May 26, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094 "2015-05-26T17:54:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Detlef\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/58f4c7/32.png) [@Detlef\_R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Detlef_R)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/1 "2015-05-26T17:54:27Z")
Hello, Facing issues on Debian with official nginx packages, I filled a bug up on the Debian tracker which ended up as being closed since Debian refers to the faulty service(s), nginx being one. ​Bug #785253 [https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=785253](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=785253)​ ​I could not fill a bug on [nginx](http://trac.nginx.org/nginx/) since OAuth 2.0 authentication through Google went away (already adressed in a separated thread). ## Could someone here confirms nginx (and not the OS) is to be adressed? Thanks, _B. R._ ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/2 "2015-05-26T19:12:11Z")
Hello! On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 05:53:00PM +0200, B.R. wrote: > thread). > > Could someone here confirms nginx (and not the OS) is to be adressed? Looking though the bug in question I don’t see anything to fix in nginx. As far as I understand the problem, it is as follows: 1. you are trying to start nginx without access to DNS; 2. your nginx configuration contains DNS names and therefore requires access to DNS for nginx to start, as nginx resolves DNS names on startup; You should either configure your OS to ensure that you start nginx after DNS is available or change your nginx configuration to avoid DNS names. – Maxim D. > **[nginx](http://nginx.org/)** ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 9:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/3 "2015-05-27T09:52:54Z")
The keyword here is ‘dynamic’. I even modified the service configuration to depend on ‘named’, but the thing is that being dynamic, the network and name resolution dependency might be fulfilled while the actual service is not ready yet. Those dependencies might (dis)appear following this ‘hot-plug’ behavior and services should adapt to this. ‘auto’ (synchronous) differs from ‘hot-plug’ (asynchronous). Is there really nothing you can do on your side about it? It is a little tiresome to see both parts throwing the ball back. ## ​Thanks,​ _B. R._ ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/4 "2015-05-27T15:20:47Z")
On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 09:51:40AM +0200, B.R. wrote: Hi there, > Is there really nothing you can do on your side about it? > It is a little tiresome to see both parts throwing the ball back. If nginx sees host names in particular places in the config file, it currently chooses to resolve them at start time. I suspect it will be slow for you to get a patch that changes that behaviour accepted into nginx. You can configure your system resolver to avoid needing DNS, by putting the host names into /etc/hosts. You can configure your nginx to avoid resolving the host names, by one of: - not using host names, instead using IP addresses - using host names, and including an upstream{} which includes the IP address - including a variable in the directive that includes the host name, so nginx will not try to resolve it at start time (which is pretty much the previous answer you got, but with a few specific ways that you can implement it). Good luck with it, ## f Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/5 "2015-05-27T12:54:40Z")
On 27/05/2015 10:51, B.R. wrote: > It is a little tiresome to see both parts throwing the ball back. > JFYI, systemd works around that issue by introducing a pseudo-service > that essentially sleeps for some amount of time until network is > (hopefully) up, see > [http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/](http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/) . – Konstantin P. ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/6 "2015-05-27T15:54:07Z")
## B.R. Wrote: > The keyword here is ‘dynamic’. > > I even modified the service configuration to depend on ‘named’, but > the > thing is that being dynamic, the network and name resolution > dependency Why not simplify things, set nginx start to manual, create a service that runs a script, inside that script attempt to resolve some dns name, when it fails wait a while and loop back, when it succeeds start nginx and exit script. Posted at Nginx Forum: [http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,259137,259175#msg-259175](http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,259137,259175#msg-259175) ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/7 "2015-05-27T18:03:18Z")
Thanks to all for your input. @Konstantin ‘workaround’ has a very specific meaning there is a bug and a way to avoid it. I want to address the bug where it lies, the latter being unclear still. systemd has probably benefits and some drawbacks which are important to me: I am sticking to sysvinit. @Francis Thanks for your input. I know that not using names meanings name resolution won’t be needed. However cutting in features works around bugs, meaning there is one. DNS has been invented because of many difficulties involved when you use IP addresses: using names in a configuration, especially for an external resolver over which I do not have control is the way to go. I do not want to make breakable configurations simply because my OS and one service does not understand each other. I made all that fuss and I am spending my time to identify a bug and address it. FYI, using the old ‘auto’ (synchronous) mode on the network service is also a workaround, which seems more reliable to me. I do not want to stick with this since the OS default is to use ‘hotplug’. That is a workaround… I want the chase the bug. (Am I repeating myself? ;o) ) @Maxim I understand from your words that using hotplug interfaces is currently not supported by nginx (as I observed). Now there are (at least) 2 ways of seing it: 1°) Considering the asynchronous nature of the new default network configuration of Debian, the services should adapt to handle cases where the network is ‘not really up’ or some features are missing (no IP address bound, name resolution not working) --\> Debian’s stance, making nginx service faulty 2°) The network should be up when (and only when) it is advertised so, making the services dependencies on system facilities reliable and safe –\> Debian OS is faulty Removing features because ‘it does not work’ is in no way a solution to my eyes. There might have huge divergence on how to embrace things, but if Debian’s claims on the fact service should have proper support are right and {if you disagree with the way Debian has taken or you do not want to change your way}, you shall then declare yourself not supporting the Debian distro. ## @itpp2012 I love your way of ‘simplifying’ things. I probably differ on the definition, since to me ‘simpler’ converges towards ‘standard’ and/or ‘default’. Making scripts is one of the multiple workarounds, but that is definitely not the solution. Will you make everyone using nginx on Debian using that trick, as soon as they need DNS on a default ‘hotplug’ interface with sysvinit? _B. R._ ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/8 "2015-05-27T18:40:42Z")
## B.R. Wrote: > Will you make everyone using nginx on Debian using > that > trick, as soon as they need DNS on a default ‘hotplug’ interface with > sysvinit? No I’d make everyone use IP addresses with the EBLB I’ve introduced a while ago with sources. For a fast acting webservice DNS is outdated, outperformed and is only useful for clients. If it was up to me I’d rip dns out completely from nginx. Posted at Nginx Forum: [http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,259137,259190#msg-259190](http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,259137,259190#msg-259190) ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/9 "2015-05-27T15:31:19Z")
Hello! On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 09:51:40AM +0200, B.R. wrote: > It is a little tiresome to see both parts throwing the ball back. > As I already tried to explain, that’s not about “both parts”, but > rather about configuration you wrote for both parts. It’s up to > you to change configuration to something consistent. You have to > either change your OS configuration (to ensure that appropriate > names are resolvable on nginx start), or change your nginx > configuration (to ensure it won’t try to resolve names). – Maxim D. > **[nginx](http://nginx.org/)** ---
**Author:** ![B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@B.R](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/B.R)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-on-debian-dynamic-network-interfaces/242094/10 "2015-07-10T15:40:34Z")
On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 6:40 PM, itpp2012 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ​Then I am one of the many glad that this is not up to you. @nginx Will you do anything to adapt to the new way on handling services asynchronously​ ​on Debian or not?​ (As a side note, and as reported here multiple times by different people, OpenID through Google does not work, so I was unable to fill up a bug there. Would you provide a way of creating accounts on your PKI?) ## Thanks, _B. R._