getpwnam("www") failed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Question

I copied the nginx.conf sample onto my ubuntu 12.04 box (I don't know where to put the other conf files. I'm an nginx noob). When I try to start nginx I get the following error:

abe-lens-laptop@abe:/etc$ sudo service nginx start
Starting nginx: nginx: [emerg] getpwnam("www") failed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

What does this error mean? How can I fix it? I found this post but my user is already set to www www (if you see in the linked file) How do I change the NGINX user?

Link to nginx.config is broken – Josh Noe Mar 04 '17 at 21:10 — Josh Noe, Mar 04 '17 at 21:10

score 50 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '14 at 21:55

50

The user you specified in your configuration, www, doesn't exist. Either create the user, or choose a user that does exist.

answered Mar 10 '14 at 21:55

Michael Hampton

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the syntax is: useradd www – Jonesome Reinstate Monica Jan 01 '15 at 23:17
work's for me on centos 7, thx! – Enderson Menezes Jul 19 '21 at 12:52

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 16 '15 at 08:09

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Your other option (if you don't want to create a new user) is to replace the user field in nginx.conf with:

user nobody;

edited Dec 16 '15 at 08:09

ellipse-of-uncertainty

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answered Oct 05 '15 at 23:25

Aaron_H

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score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 17 '17 at 03:41

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Create the www user. On Ubuntu this should be done using the following command and flags:

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --shell /bin/false --group --disabled-login www

answered Sep 17 '17 at 03:41

Justin

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 12 '18 at 10:18

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nginx version: nginx/1.13.9 built by gcc 5.4.0 20160609 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9) built with OpenSSL 1.1.0g 2 Nov 2017

just use

user  nobody nogroup;

answered Mar 12 '18 at 10:18

Rochmad Saputra

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I had same problem, after changing php-fpm user and group i had changed nginx user to my user but i was referring to old guide and this answer helped to fix this issue. Thanks – Myster-Mayur Dec 13 '20 at 08:32

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 24 '16 at 10:42

While Michael Hamptons answer is correct, it is only part of the answer. A more complete version would be:

Check if the user exists
Also check which user you use to start the docker container

If you do:

docker -u 0 ....

then the same message will appear even if the user exists on the host system. Changing the value behind -u to the id of user nginx then solves this problem.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 02 '19 at 00:22

This is the command that's work for me "Scientific Linux"

adduser  --no-create-home  --system  --user-group --shell /bin/false   www

or the user name www-data if you use it instead

adduser  --no-create-home  --system  --user-group --shell /bin/false   www-data

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 15 '14 at 12:54

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I had the same issue... I chose "nginx" user and it didn't exist. I solved it reconfiguring and recompiling NGINX choosing an existing one.

./configure --prefix=/opt/nginx --user=myUser --group=myUsergroup

Everything is OK now...

answered Nov 15 '14 at 12:54

Jorge Luis Guacarán

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Compilation options are a way to set **default** values for some directives. It's of course not necessary to compile nginx again to change these : these default values are overloaded by configuration files. – Xavier Lucas Nov 15 '14 at 13:18
Of course, but we're talking about the first time confguration/compilation... – Jorge Luis Guacarán Nov 15 '14 at 14:03
Where did you read that exactly? First configuration has nothing to do with compilation btw. – Xavier Lucas Nov 15 '14 at 14:18

getpwnam("www") failed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

7 Answers7