Nginx still try to open default error log file even though I set nginx config file while reloading

Question

The below is my nginx configuration file located in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

user Foo;
worker_processes 1;

error_log /home/Foo/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /home/Foo/run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    use epoll;
}

http {
    access_log /home/Foo/log/nginx/access.log;

    server {
        listen 80;

        location = / {
            proxy_pass http://192.168.0.16:9999;
        }
    }
}

As you can see I change log, pid files location into home directory.

When I re-start Linux it seems to work, Nginx records error logs in the file I set and pid file also.

However, when it tries nginx -s reload or the other, It tries to open other error log file.

nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)
2015/12/14 11:23:54 [warn] 3356#0: the "user" directive makes sense only if the master process runs with super-user privileges, ignored in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
2015/12/14 11:23:54 [emerg] 3356#0: open() "/home/Foo/run/nginx.pid" failed (13: Permission denied)
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

I know, I can solve permission error with sudo but the main issue in here is a error log file(/var/log/nginx/error.log) Nginx tries to open.

Why does it try to access another error log file?

Answer 1

This is old... but I went through the same pain and here is my solution.

As you can see the log is an alert, not a blocking error:

nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)

It shouldn't be a problem :) Nginx just likes to check that file on startup...

Just use -p option. Something like this to launch Nginx locally works for me:

nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf -g 'daemon off;' -p /home/Foo/log/nginx