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> compiling your own nginx is not trivial and I would not recommend it for everyone. It's still pretty easy. For those that have never done it, it's a configur

> compiling your own nginx is not trivial and I would not recommend it for everyone. It's still pretty easy. For those that have never done it, it's a configure-like script, make, make install. That's it. It's almost your standard autoconf package routine of ./configure && make && make install, except the configure script is oddly in a subdir and not from autofoo. But it is all covered in the documentation, IIRC.

therealmarv 11y ago
yes compilation itself is not the problem here. Problem is more maintaining the whole stuff. Keep e.g. sure OpenSSL is up to date linked in your nginx is a good example (what a nightmare). Also getting nginx running and configuring like a standard Ubuntu one is not out of the box. This are all extra step which not everybody wants to deal with.
- deathanatos 11y ago
  IIRC, OpenSSL is dynamically linked by default in a custom compiled nginx — the same as it would be if you didn't custom compile it, and you have the same amount of work either way maintaining OpenSSL. I maintain a custom compile of nginx, but the custom ends at the boundary of nginx: it uses Ubuntu's libssl, so OpenSSL patches that make it to Ubuntu apply normally to my custom build. The config for nginx is the same: /etc/nginx/…. I can tell you it's exactly the same, as we transitioned from a config from Ubuntu stock nginx to my custom build (and went up a version) with zero issues. The only real thing that is different is the binary itself, and the installation location. (But I did the latter on purpose, because I didn't want to collide with apt/dpkg's management of /usr/bin.)
  - therealmarv 11y ago
    Thanks for the information! I will keep this in mind next time. It was some time ago the last time I used custom compiled nginx. Seemed I used a statically linked OpenSSL (which had this downsides). I informed myself a littlebit more here https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-and-the-heartbleed-vulnerability/ https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-and-the-heartbleed-vulnerab...

therealmarv 11y ago

yes compilation itself is not the problem here. Problem is more maintaining the whole stuff. Keep e.g. sure OpenSSL is up to date linked in your nginx is a good example (what a nightmare). Also getting nginx running and configuring like a standard Ubuntu one is not out of the box. This are all extra step which not everybody wants to deal with.

deathanatos 11y ago
IIRC, OpenSSL is dynamically linked by default in a custom compiled nginx — the same as it would be if you didn't custom compile it, and you have the same amount of work either way maintaining OpenSSL. I maintain a custom compile of nginx, but the custom ends at the boundary of nginx: it uses Ubuntu's libssl, so OpenSSL patches that make it to Ubuntu apply normally to my custom build. The config for nginx is the same: /etc/nginx/…. I can tell you it's exactly the same, as we transitioned from a config from Ubuntu stock nginx to my custom build (and went up a version) with zero issues. The only real thing that is different is the binary itself, and the installation location. (But I did the latter on purpose, because I didn't want to collide with apt/dpkg's management of /usr/bin.)
- therealmarv 11y ago
  Thanks for the information! I will keep this in mind next time. It was some time ago the last time I used custom compiled nginx. Seemed I used a statically linked OpenSSL (which had this downsides). I informed myself a littlebit more here https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-and-the-heartbleed-vulnerability/ https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-and-the-heartbleed-vulnerab...