Development guide

Introduction
     Code layout
     Include files
     Integers
     Common return codes
     Error handling
Strings
     Overview
     Formatting
     Numeric conversion
Containers
     Array
     List
     Queue
     Red-Black tree
Memory management
     Heap
     Pool
     Shared memory
Logging
Cycle
Buffer
Networking
     Connection
Events
     Event
     I/O events
     Timer events
     Posted events
     Event loop
Processes

Introduction

Code layout

Include files

Each nginx file should start with including the following two files: 

#include <ngx_config.h>
#include <ngx_core.h>

In addition to that, HTTP code should include 

#include <ngx_http.h>

Mail code should include 

#include <ngx_mail.h>

Stream code should include 

#include <ngx_stream.h>

Integers

For general purpose, nginx code uses the following two integer types ngx_int_t and ngx_uint_t which are typedefs for intptr_t and uintptr_t.

Common return codes

Most functions in nginx return the following codes:

Error handling

For getting the last system error code, the ngx_errno macro is available. It's mapped to errno on POSIX platforms and to GetLastError() call in Windows. For getting the last socket error number, the ngx_socket_errno macro is available. It's mapped to errno on POSIX systems as well, and to WSAGetLastError() call on Windows. For performance reasons the values of ngx_errno or ngx_socket_errno should not be accessed more than once in a row. The error value should be stored in a local variable of type ngx_err_t for using multiple times, if required. For setting errors, ngx_set_errno(errno) and ngx_set_socket_errno(errno) macros are available.

The values of ngx_errno or ngx_socket_errno can be passed to logging functions ngx_log_error() and ngx_log_debugX(), in which case system error text is added to the log message.

Example using ngx_errno: 

void
ngx_my_kill(ngx_pid_t pid, ngx_log_t *log, int signo)
{
    ngx_err_t  err;

    if (kill(pid, signo) == -1) {
        err = ngx_errno;

        ngx_log_error(NGX_LOG_ALERT, log, err, "kill(%P, %d) failed", pid, signo);

        if (err == NGX_ESRCH) {
            return 2;
        }

        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

Strings

Overview

For C strings, nginx code uses unsigned character type pointer u_char *.

The nginx string type ngx_str_t is defined as follows: 

typedef struct {
    size_t      len;
    u_char     *data;
} ngx_str_t;

The len field holds the string length, data holds the string data. The string, held in ngx_str_t, may or may not be null-terminated after the len bytes. In most cases it’s not. However, in certain parts of code (for example, when parsing configuration), ngx_str_t objects are known to be null-terminated, and that knowledge is used to simplify string comparison and makes it easier to pass those strings to syscalls.

A number of string operations are provided in nginx. They are declared in src/core/ngx_string.h. Some of them are wrappers around standard C functions:

Some nginx-specific string functions:

Some case conversion and comparison functions:

Formatting

A number of formatting functions are provided by nginx. These functions support nginx-specific types:

The full list of formatting options, supported by these functions, can be found in src/core/ngx_string.c. Some of them are: 

%O - off_t
%T - time_t
%z - size_t
%i - ngx_int_t
%p - void *
%V - ngx_str_t *
%s - u_char * (null-terminated)
%*s - size_t + u_char *

The ‘u’ modifier makes most types unsigned, ‘X’/‘x’ convert output to hex.

Example: 

u_char     buf[NGX_INT_T_LEN];
size_t     len;
ngx_int_t  n;

/* set n here */

len = ngx_sprintf(buf, "%ui", n) - buf;

Numeric conversion

Several functions for numeric conversion are implemented in nginx:

Containers

Array

The nginx array type ngx_array_t is defined as follows 

typedef struct {
    void        *elts;
    ngx_uint_t   nelts;
    size_t       size;
    ngx_uint_t   nalloc;
    ngx_pool_t  *pool;
} ngx_array_t;

The elements of array are available through the elts field. The number of elements is held in the nelts field. The size field holds the size of a single element and is set when initializing the array.

An array can be created in a pool with the ngx_array_create(pool, n, size) call. An already allocated array object can be initialized with the ngx_array_init(array, pool, n, size) call. 

ngx_array_t  *a, b;

/* create an array of strings with preallocated memory for 10 elements */
a = ngx_array_create(pool, 10, sizeof(ngx_str_t));

/* initialize string array for 10 elements */
ngx_array_init(&b, pool, 10, sizeof(ngx_str_t));

Adding elements to array are done with the following functions:

If currently allocated memory is not enough for new elements, a new memory for elements is allocated and existing elements are copied to that memory. The new memory block is normally twice as large, as the existing one. 

s = ngx_array_push(a);
ss = ngx_array_push_n(&b, 3);

List

List in nginx is a sequence of arrays, optimized for inserting a potentially large number of items. The list type is defined as follows: 

typedef struct {
    ngx_list_part_t  *last;
    ngx_list_part_t   part;
    size_t            size;
    ngx_uint_t        nalloc;
    ngx_pool_t       *pool;
} ngx_list_t;

The actual items are store in list parts, defined as follows: 

typedef struct ngx_list_part_s  ngx_list_part_t;

struct ngx_list_part_s {
    void             *elts;
    ngx_uint_t        nelts;
    ngx_list_part_t  *next;
};

Initially, a list must be initialized by calling ngx_list_init(list, pool, n, size) or created by calling ngx_list_create(pool, n, size). Both functions receive the size of a single item and a number of items per list part. The ngx_list_push(list) function is used to add an item to the list. Iterating over the items is done by direct accessing the list fields, as seen in the example: 

ngx_str_t        *v;
ngx_uint_t        i;
ngx_list_t       *list;
ngx_list_part_t  *part;

list = ngx_list_create(pool, 100, sizeof(ngx_str_t));
if (list == NULL) { /* error */ }

/* add items to the list */

v = ngx_list_push(list);
if (v == NULL) { /* error */ }
ngx_str_set(v, “foo”);

v = ngx_list_push(list);
if (v == NULL) { /* error */ }
ngx_str_set(v, “bar”);

/* iterate over the list */

part = &list->part;
v = part->elts;

for (i = 0; /* void */; i++) {

    if (i >= part->nelts) {
        if (part->next == NULL) {
            break;
        }

        part = part->next;
        v = part->elts;
        i = 0;
    }

    ngx_do_smth(&v[i]);
}

The primary use for the list in nginx is HTTP input and output headers.

The list does not support item removal. However, when needed, items can internally be marked as missing without actual removing from the list. For example, HTTP output headers which are stored as ngx_table_elt_t objects, are marked as missing by setting the hash field of ngx_table_elt_t to zero. Such items are explicitly skipped, when iterating over the headers.

Queue

Queue in nginx is an intrusive doubly linked list, with each node defined as follows: 

typedef struct ngx_queue_s  ngx_queue_t;

struct ngx_queue_s {
    ngx_queue_t  *prev;
    ngx_queue_t  *next;
};

The head queue node is not linked with any data. Before using, the list head should be initialized with ngx_queue_init(q) call. Queues support the following operations:

Example: 

typedef struct {
    ngx_str_t    value;
    ngx_queue_t  queue;
} ngx_foo_t;

ngx_foo_t    *f;
ngx_queue_t   values;

ngx_queue_init(&values);

f = ngx_palloc(pool, sizeof(ngx_foo_t));
if (f == NULL) { /* error */ }
ngx_str_set(&f->value, “foo”);

ngx_queue_insert_tail(&values, f);

/* insert more nodes here */

for (q = ngx_queue_head(&values);
     q != ngx_queue_sentinel(&values);
     q = ngx_queue_next(q))
{
    f = ngx_queue_data(q, ngx_foo_t, queue);

    ngx_do_smth(&f->value);
}

Red-Black tree

The src/core/ngx_rbtree.h header file provides access to the effective implementation of red-black trees. 

typedef struct {
    ngx_rbtree_t       rbtree;
    ngx_rbtree_node_t  sentinel;

    /* custom per-tree data here */
} my_tree_t;

typedef struct {
    ngx_rbtree_node_t  rbnode;

    /* custom per-node data */
    foo_t              val;
} my_node_t;

To deal with a tree as a whole, you need two nodes: root and sentinel. Typically, they are added to some custom structure, thus allowing to organize your data into a tree which leaves contain a link to or embed your data.

To initialize a tree: 

my_tree_t  root;

ngx_rbtree_init(&root.rbtree, &root.sentinel, insert_value_function);

The insert_value_function is a function that is responsible for traversing the tree and inserting new values into correct place. For example, the ngx_str_rbtree_insert_value functions is designed to deal with ngx_str_t type. 

void ngx_str_rbtree_insert_value(ngx_rbtree_node_t *temp,
                                 ngx_rbtree_node_t *node,
                                 ngx_rbtree_node_t *sentinel)

Its arguments are pointers to a root node of an insertion, newly created node to be added, and a tree sentinel.

The traversal is pretty straightforward and can be demonstrated with the following lookup function pattern: 

my_node_t *
my_rbtree_lookup(ngx_rbtree_t *rbtree, foo_t *val, uint32_t hash)
{
    ngx_int_t           rc;
    my_node_t          *n;
    ngx_rbtree_node_t  *node, *sentinel;

    node = rbtree->root;
    sentinel = rbtree->sentinel;

    while (node != sentinel) {

        n = (my_node_t *) node;

        if (hash != node->key) {
            node = (hash < node->key) ? node->left : node->right;
            continue;
        }

        rc = compare(val, node->val);

        if (rc < 0) {
            node = node->left;
            continue;
        }

        if (rc > 0) {
            node = node->right;
            continue;
        }

        return n;
    }

    return NULL;
}

The compare() is a classic comparator function returning value less, equal or greater than zero. To speed up lookups and avoid comparing user objects that can be big, integer hash field is used.

To add a node to a tree, allocate a new node, initialize it and call ngx_rbtree_insert(): 

    my_node_t          *my_node;
    ngx_rbtree_node_t  *node;

    my_node = ngx_palloc(...);
    init_custom_data(&my_node->val);

    node = &my_node->rbnode;
    node->key = create_key(my_node->val);

    ngx_rbtree_insert(&root->rbtree, node);

to remove a node: 

ngx_rbtree_delete(&root->rbtree, node);

Memory management

Heap

To allocate memory from system heap, the following functions are provided by nginx:

Pool

Most nginx allocations are done in pools. Memory allocated in an nginx pool is freed automatically when the pool in destroyed. This provides good allocation performance and makes memory control easy.

A pool internally allocates objects in continuous blocks of memory. Once a block is full, a new one is allocated and added to the pool memory block list. When a large allocation is requested which does not fit into a block, such allocation is forwarded to the system allocator and the returned pointer is stored in the pool for further deallocation.

Nginx pool has the type ngx_pool_t. The following operations are supported: 

u_char      *p;
ngx_str_t   *s;
ngx_pool_t  *pool;

pool = ngx_create_pool(1024, log);
if (pool == NULL) { /* error */ }

s = ngx_palloc(pool, sizeof(ngx_str_t));
if (s == NULL) { /* error */ }
ngx_str_set(s, “foo”);

p = ngx_pnalloc(pool, 3);
if (p == NULL) { /* error */ }
ngx_memcpy(p, “foo”, 3);

Since chain links ngx_chain_t are actively used in nginx, nginx pool provides a way to reuse them. The chain field of ngx_pool_t keeps a list of previously allocated links ready for reuse. For efficient allocation of a chain link in a pool, the function ngx_alloc_chain_link(pool) should be used. This function looks up a free chain link in the pool list and only if it's empty allocates a new one. To free a link ngx_free_chain(pool, cl) should be called.

Cleanup handlers can be registered in a pool. Cleanup handler is a callback with an argument which is called when pool is destroyed. Pool is usually tied with a specific nginx object (like HTTP request) and destroyed in the end of that object’s lifetime, releasing the object itself. Registering a pool cleanup is a convenient way to release resources, close file descriptors or make final adjustments to shared data, associated with the main object.

A pool cleanup is registered by calling ngx_pool_cleanup_add(pool, size) which returns ngx_pool_cleanup_t pointer to be filled by the caller. The size argument allows allocating context for the cleanup handler. 

ngx_pool_cleanup_t  *cln;

cln = ngx_pool_cleanup_add(pool, 0);
if (cln == NULL) { /* error */ }

cln->handler = ngx_my_cleanup;
cln->data = “foo”;

...

static void
ngx_my_cleanup(void *data)
{
    u_char  *msg = data;

    ngx_do_smth(msg);
}

Shared memory

Shared memory is used by nginx to share common data between processes. Function ngx_shared_memory_add(cf, name, size, tag) adds a new shared memory entry ngx_shm_zone_t to the cycle. The function receives name and size of the zone. Each shared zone must have a unique name. If a shared zone entry with the provided name exists, the old zone entry is reused, if its tag value matches too. Mismatched tag is considered an error. Usually, the address of the module structure is passed as tag, making it possible to reuse shared zones by name within one nginx module.

The shared memory entry structure ngx_shm_zone_t has the following fields:

Shared zone entries are mapped to actual memory in ngx_init_cycle() after configuration is parsed. On POSIX systems, mmap() syscall is used to create shared anonymous mapping. On Windows, CreateFileMapping()/MapViewOfFileEx() pair is used.

For allocating in shared memory, nginx provides slab pool ngx_slab_pool_t. In each nginx shared zone, a slab pool is automatically created for allocating memory in that zone. The pool is located in the beginning of the shared zone and can be accessed by the expression (ngx_slab_pool_t *) shm_zone->shm.addr. Allocation in shared zone is done by calling one of the functions ngx_slab_alloc(pool, size)/ngx_slab_calloc(pool, size). Memory is freed by calling ngx_slab_free(pool, p).

Slab pool divides all shared zone into pages. Each page is used for allocating objects of the same size. Only the sizes which are powers of 2, and not less than 8, are considered. Other sizes are rounded up to one of these values. For each page, a bitmask is kept, showing which blocks within that page are in use and which are free for allocation. For sizes greater than half-page (usually, 2048 bytes), allocation is done by entire pages.

To protect data in shared memory from concurrent access, mutex is available in the mutex field of ngx_slab_pool_t. The mutex is used by the slab pool while allocating and freeing memory. However, it can be used to protect any other user data structures, allocated in the shared zone. Locking is done by calling ngx_shmtx_lock(&shpool->mutex), unlocking is done by calling ngx_shmtx_unlock(&shpool->mutex). 

ngx_str_t        name;
ngx_foo_ctx_t   *ctx;
ngx_shm_zone_t  *shm_zone;

ngx_str_set(&name, "foo");

/* allocate shared zone context */
ctx = ngx_pcalloc(cf->pool, sizeof(ngx_foo_ctx_t));
if (ctx == NULL) {
    /* error */
}

/* add an entry for 65k shared zone */
shm_zone = ngx_shared_memory_add(cf, &name, 65536, &ngx_foo_module);
if (shm_zone == NULL) {
    /* error */
}

/* register init callback and context */
shm_zone->init = ngx_foo_init_zone;
shm_zone->data = ctx;


...


static ngx_int_t
ngx_foo_init_zone(ngx_shm_zone_t *shm_zone, void *data)
{
    ngx_foo_ctx_t  *octx = data;

    size_t            len;
    ngx_foo_ctx_t    *ctx;
    ngx_slab_pool_t  *shpool;

    value = shm_zone->data;

    if (octx) {
        /* reusing a shared zone from old cycle */
        ctx->value = octx->value;
        return NGX_OK;
    }

    shpool = (ngx_slab_pool_t *) shm_zone->shm.addr;

    if (shm_zone->shm.exists) {
        /* initialize shared zone context in Windows nginx worker */
        ctx->value = shpool->data;
        return NGX_OK;
    }

    /* initialize shared zone */

    ctx->value = ngx_slab_alloc(shpool, sizeof(ngx_uint_t));
    if (ctx->value == NULL) {
        return NGX_ERROR;
    }

    shpool->data = ctx->value;

    return NGX_OK;
}

Logging

For logging nginx code uses ngx_log_t objects. Nginx logger provides support for several types of output:

A logger instance may actually be a chain of loggers, linked to each other with the next field. Each message is written to all loggers in chain.

Each logger has an error level which limits the messages written to that log. The following error levels are supported by nginx:

For debug logging, debug mask is checked as well. The following debug masks exist:

Normally, loggers are created by existing nginx code from error_log directives and are available at nearly every stage of processing in cycle, configuration, client connection and other objects.

Nginx provides the following logging macros:

A log message is formatted in a buffer of size NGX_MAX_ERROR_STR (currently, 2048 bytes) on stack. The message is prepended with error level, process PID, connection id (stored in log->connection) and system error text. For non-debug messages log->handler is called as well to prepend more specific information to the log message. HTTP module sets ngx_http_log_error() function as log handler to log client and server addresses, current action (stored in log->action), client request line, server name etc.

Example: 

/* specify what is currently done */
log->action = "sending mp4 to client”;

/* error and debug log */
ngx_log_error(NGX_LOG_INFO, c->log, 0, "client prematurely
              closed connection”);

ngx_log_debug2(NGX_LOG_DEBUG_HTTP, mp4->file.log, 0,
               "mp4 start:%ui, length:%ui”, mp4->start, mp4->length);

Logging result: 

2016/09/16 22:08:52 [info] 17445#0: *1 client prematurely closed connection while
sending mp4 to client, client: 127.0.0.1, server: , request: "GET /file.mp4 HTTP/1.1”
2016/09/16 23:28:33 [debug] 22140#0: *1 mp4 start:0, length:10000

Cycle

Cycle object keeps nginx runtime context, created from a specific configuration. The type of the cycle is ngx_cycle_t. Upon configuration reload a new cycle is created from the new version of nginx configuration. The old cycle is usually deleted after a new one is successfully created. Currently active cycle is held in the ngx_cycle global variable and is inherited by newly started nginx workers.

A cycle is created by the function ngx_init_cycle(). The function receives the old cycle as the argument. It's used to locate the configuration file and inherit as much resources as possible from the old cycle to keep nginx running smoothly. When nginx starts, a fake cycle called "init cycle" is created and is then replaced by a normal cycle, built from configuration.

Some members of the cycle:

Buffer

For input/output operations, nginx provides the buffer type ngx_buf_t. Normally, it's used to hold data to be written to a destination or read from a source. Buffer can reference data in memory and in file. Technically it's possible that a buffer references both at the same time. Memory for the buffer is allocated separately and is not related to the buffer structure ngx_buf_t.

The structure ngx_buf_t has the following fields:

For input and output buffers are linked in chains. Chain is a sequence of chain links ngx_chain_t, defined as follows: 

typedef struct ngx_chain_s  ngx_chain_t;

struct ngx_chain_s {
    ngx_buf_t    *buf;
    ngx_chain_t  *next;
};

Each chain link keeps a reference to its buffer and a reference to the next chain link.

Example of using buffers and chains: 

ngx_chain_t *
ngx_get_my_chain(ngx_pool_t *pool)
{
    ngx_buf_t    *b;
    ngx_chain_t  *out, *cl, **ll;

    /* first buf */
    cl = ngx_alloc_chain_link(pool);
    if (cl == NULL) { /* error */ }

    b = ngx_calloc_buf(pool);
    if (b == NULL) { /* error */ }

    b->start = (u_char *) "foo";
    b->pos = b->start;
    b->end = b->start + 3;
    b->last = b->end;
    b->memory = 1; /* read-only memory */

    cl->buf = b;
    out = cl;
    ll = &cl->next;

    /* second buf */
    cl = ngx_alloc_chain_link(pool);
    if (cl == NULL) { /* error */ }

    b = ngx_create_temp_buf(pool, 3);
    if (b == NULL) { /* error */ }

    b->last = ngx_cpymem(b->last, "foo", 3);

    cl->buf = b;
    cl->next = NULL;
    *ll = cl;

    return out;
}

Networking

Connection

Connection type ngx_connection_t is a wrapper around a socket descriptor. Some of the structure fields are:

An nginx connection can transparently encapsulate SSL layer. In this case the connection ssl field holds a pointer to an ngx_ssl_connection_t structure, keeping all SSL-related data for the connection, including SSL_CTX and SSL. The handlers recv, send, recv_chain, send_chain are set as well to SSL functions.

The number of connections per nginx worker is limited by the worker_connections value. All connection structures are pre-created when a worker starts and stored in the connections field of the cycle object. To reach out for a connection structure, ngx_get_connection(s, log) function is used. The function receives a socket descriptor s which needs to be wrapped in a connection structure.

Since the number of connections per worker is limited, nginx provides a way to grab connections which are currently in use. To enable or disable reuse of a connection, function ngx_reusable_connection(c, reusable) is called. Calling ngx_reusable_connection(c, 1) sets the reuse flag of the connection structure and inserts the connection in the reusable_connections_queue of the cycle. Whenever ngx_get_connection() finds out there are no available connections in the free_connections list of the cycle, it calls ngx_drain_connections() to release a specific number of reusable connections. For each such connection, the close flag is set and its read handler is called which is supposed to free the connection by calling ngx_close_connection(c) and make it available for reuse. To exit the state when a connection can be reused ngx_reusable_connection(c, 0) is called. An example of reusable connections in nginx is HTTP client connections which are marked as reusable until some data is received from the client.

Events

Event

Event object ngx_event_t in nginx provides a way to be notified of a specific event happening.

Some of the fields of the ngx_event_t are:

I/O events

Each connection, received with the ngx_get_connection() call, has two events attached to it: c->read and c->write. These events are used to receive notifications about the socket being ready for reading or writing. All such events operate in Edge-Triggered mode, meaning that they only trigger notifications when the state of the socket changes. For example, doing a partial read on a socket will not make nginx deliver a repeated read notification until more data arrive in the socket. Even when the underlying I/O notification mechanism is essentially Level-Triggered (poll, select etc), nginx will turn the notifications into Edge-Triggered. To make nginx event notifications consistent across all notifications systems on different platforms, it's required, that the functions ngx_handle_read_event(rev, flags) and ngx_handle_read_event(wev,flags) are called after handling an I/O socket notification or calling any I/O functions on that socket. Normally, these functions are called once in the end of each read or write event handler.

Timer events

An event can be set to notify a timeout expiration. The function ngx_add_timer(ev, timer) sets a timeout for an event, ngx_del_timer(ev) deletes a previously set timeout. Timeouts currently set for all existing events, are kept in a global timeout Red-Black tree ngx_event_timer_rbtree. The key in that tree has the type ngx_msec_t and is the time in milliseconds since the beginning of January 1, 1970 (modulus ngx_msec_t max value) at which the event should expire. The tree structure provides fast inserting and deleting operations, as well as accessing the nearest timeouts. The latter is used by nginx to find out for how long to wait for I/O events and for expiring timeout events afterwards.

Posted events

An event can be posted which means that its handler will be called at some point later within the current event loop iteration. Posting events is a good practice for simplifying code and escaping stack overflows. Posted events are held in a post queue. The macro ngx_post_event(ev, q) posts the event ev to the post queue q. Macro ngx_delete_posted_event(ev) deletes the event ev from whatever queue it's currently posted. Normally, events are posted to the ngx_posted_events queue. This queue is processed late in the event loop - after all I/O and timer events are already handled. The function ngx_event_process_posted() is called to process an event queue. This function calls event handlers until the queue is not empty. This means that a posted event handler can post more events to be processed within the current event loop iteration.

Example: 

void
ngx_my_connection_read(ngx_connection_t *c)
{
    ngx_event_t  *rev;

    rev = c->read;

    ngx_add_timer(rev, 1000);

    rev->handler = ngx_my_read_handler;

    ngx_my_read(rev);
}


void
ngx_my_read_handler(ngx_event_t *rev)
{
    ssize_t            n;
    ngx_connection_t  *c;
    u_char             buf[256];

    if (rev->timedout) { /* timeout expired */ }

    c = rev->data;

    while (rev->ready) {
        n = c->recv(c, buf, sizeof(buf));

        if (n == NGX_AGAIN) {
            break;
        }

        if (n == NGX_ERROR) { /* error */ }

        /* process buf */
    }

    if (ngx_handle_read_event(rev, 0) != NGX_OK) { /* error */ }
}

Event loop

All nginx processes which do I/O, have an event loop. The only type of process which does not have I/O, is nginx master process which spends most of its time in sigsuspend() call waiting for signals to arrive. Event loop is implemented in ngx_process_events_and_timers() function. This function is called repeatedly until the process exits. It has the following stages:

All nginx processes handle signals as well. Signal handlers only set global variables which are checked after the ngx_process_events_and_timers() call.

Processes

There are several types of processes in nginx. The type of current process is kept in the ngx_process global variable:

All nginx processes handle the following signals:

While all nginx worker processes are able to receive and properly handle POSIX signals, master process normally does not pass any signals to workers and helpers with the standard kill() syscall. Instead, nginx uses inter-process channels which allow sending messages between all nginx processes. Currently, however, messages are only sent from master to its children. Those messages carry the same signals. The channels are socketpairs with their ends in different processes.

When running nginx binary, several values can be specified next to -s parameter. Those values are stop, quit, reopen, reload. They are converted to signals NGX_TERMINATE_SIGNAL, NGX_SHUTDOWN_SIGNAL, NGX_REOPEN_SIGNAL and NGX_RECONFIGURE_SIGNAL and sent to the nginx master process, whose pid is read from nginx pid file.