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Accepted
Enrico
Asked: 2014-07-04 13:11:14 +0800 CST

Using a variable in an upstream declaration?

  • 772

Is it possible to use a variable in an nginx upstream directive?

upstream appserver {
    server unix:/socks/$host.sock
}

I've search my little heart out and can't find the answer.

A) Is it possible?
B) Is this a terrible idea?

nginx

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    It's generally a bad idea to do that kind of a configuration.

    You are better off doing the following:

    General config:

    http {
    ...
    include upstreams/*.conf;
    ...
    server {
        ...

    upstreams/*.conf:

    Use a script to generate these files with changing variables for you and then reload config with nginx -s reload

    Example python script:

    from os import system

upstream = "something"
with open('upstreams/bro.conf', 'w') as f:
    f.write('upstream {0} {{\n\tserver unix:/socks/{0}.sock\n}}'.format(upstream)
system('nginx -s reload')
    • 5

  2. a) No.

    b) Yes. Thought it could be useful for development config,

    I see no problem with using this snippet in dev:

    proxy_pass http://unix:/socks/$host.sock;
    • 4