[Pkg-nginx-maintainers] Bug#1025858: nginx-core: Consider –-error-log-path=stderr instead of /var/log/nginx/error.log

[Jérémy Lal]

Package: nginx-core
Version: 1.22.1-4
Severity: wishlist

I'll just copy/paste the really good explanation of
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/38011

> nginx is configured with --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log.
> This makes it impossible to log errors to stderr from the configuration file.

> from http://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_core_module.html:
>> The first parameter defines a file that will store the log.
>> The special value stderr selects the standard error file.
> This means that configuring "error_log stderr" will NOT log to stderr,
> but to the default error-file, (the compiled-in file).

> from http://wiki.nginx.org/InstallOptions:
>> After installation, the file name can always be changed
>> in the nginx.conf configuration file using the error_log directive.
>> By default the file is named prefix/logs/error.log.
>> The special "stderr" value tells nginx to log pre-configuration messages to the standard error.
> Aka when using "stderr" as compile-flag, output will be send to stderr as expected

> This means that currently (error-log-path=file) it is impossible
> to log to stderr from the configuration file (you can only specify an alternative file).
> If however nginx would be compiled with error-log-path=stderr,
> the configuration could use stderr (to log to stderr) or a file-name.

> I have confirmed this by compiling nginx with --error-log-path=stderr

I hope this will convince everyone that changing the current default is
the right thing to do.

Jérémy

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bookworm/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (101, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.0.0-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.utf8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages nginx-core depends on:
ii  iproute2                        6.0.0-1+b1
ii  libc6                           2.36-6
ii  libcrypt1                       1:4.4.33-1
ii  libnginx-mod-http-geoip         1.22.1-4
ii  libnginx-mod-http-image-filter  1.22.1-4
ii  libnginx-mod-http-xslt-filter   1.22.1-4
ii  libnginx-mod-mail               1.22.1-4
ii  libnginx-mod-stream             1.22.1-4
ii  libnginx-mod-stream-geoip       1.22.1-4
ii  libpcre3                        2:8.39-14
ii  libssl3                         3.0.7-1
ii  nginx-common                    1.22.1-4
ii  zlib1g                          1:1.2.13.dfsg-1

nginx-core recommends no packages.

Versions of packages nginx-core suggests:
ii  nginx-doc  1.22.1-4

-- no debconf information