Basic Commands in Nginx
From the Nginx cheat sheet · Installation & Basic Commands · verified Jul 2026
Basic Commands
Essential Nginx management commands
bash
# Start/Stop/Restart
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl stop nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl reload nginx
# Test configuration
sudo nginx -t
# Show current config
sudo nginx -T✅ Always test config before reload with nginx -t
🔄 Reload applies changes without dropping connections
📁 Config files in /etc/nginx/ directory
📊 Logs in /var/log/nginx/ by default