When you've compiled Nginx from source (typical path: /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx), these are the most reliable restart approaches:

# Graceful restart (reloads config without dropping connections)
/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload

# Full restart (closes all active connections)
/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -s stop
/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx

While killall nginx works, it's considered abrupt because:

• Terminates worker processes immediately without finishing active requests
• May cause corruption if workers were writing logs or cache
• Bypasses Nginx's own shutdown sequence

For production systems, create a proper startup script. Example for Systemd:

# /etc/systemd/system/nginx.service
[Unit]
Description=NGINX Web Server
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid
ExecStartPre=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -t
ExecStart=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx
ExecReload=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload
ExecStop=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -s quit
TimeoutStopSec=5
KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable it:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable nginx

For older systems, use this classic init script:

#!/bin/sh
# Save as /etc/init.d/nginx
PATH=/usr/local/nginx/sbin:$PATH
case "$1" in
  start)
    nginx
    ;;
  stop)
    nginx -s quit
    ;;
  restart)
    nginx -s quit
    nginx
    ;;
  reload)
    nginx -s reload
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload}"
    exit 1
esac

Always check status after restart:

ps aux | grep nginx
curl -I http://localhost
tail -f /usr/local/nginx/logs/error.log

When you compile Nginx from source, it doesn't automatically create the convenient service management scripts that package managers provide. This means common commands like service nginx restart or systemctl restart nginx won't be available.

The manual method you mentioned works, but could be improved:

# Current approach
killall nginx
/path/to/sbin/nginx

Potential issues with this method:

• Hard kill might drop active connections
• No process monitoring between steps
• Depends on killall being available

Method 1: Using Nginx's Built-in Signals

The proper way to restart Nginx is using signals:

# Graceful shutdown
kill -QUIT `cat /usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid`

# Start fresh
/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx

Alternatively, use the -s option if you have direct access to the binary:

/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -s quit
/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx

Method 2: Creating a Simple Restart Script

Create /usr/local/bin/nginx-restart:

#!/bin/sh
NGINX_BIN=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx
PID_FILE=/usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid

if [ -f $PID_FILE ]; then
  $NGINX_BIN -s quit
  sleep 1
fi

$NGINX_BIN

For production environments, consider creating a proper init script:

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          nginx
# Required-Start:    $network $remote_fs $local_fs
# Required-Stop:     $network $remote_fs $local_fs
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: nginx init.d script
### END INIT INFO

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx
NAME=nginx
PIDFILE=/usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid

case "$1" in
  start)
    echo -n "Starting $NAME: "
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;
  stop)
    echo -n "Stopping $NAME: "
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;
  restart)
    $0 stop
    sleep 1
    $0 start
    ;;
  reload)
    echo -n "Reloading $NAME configuration: "
    start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload}"
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

exit 0

Remember that often you just need to reload configuration:

/usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload

This is preferred over a full restart because:

• Maintains existing connections
• Zero downtime
• Preserves runtime state