Change Nginx Port on macOS Guide

Change Nginx Port on macOS Guide | Generated by AI

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You want Nginx on macOS to listen on a different port than its default (80 for HTTP, 443 for HTTPS). Here’s a clear step-by-step guide:

1. Locate your Nginx configuration file

If you installed via Homebrew, the default config is usually:
```
/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
```
or, on Apple Silicon:
```
/opt/homebrew/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
```
If you installed manually, it may be /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf.

2. Edit the `listen` directive

Open the config in a text editor:

nano /opt/homebrew/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Find the server block:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;

    location / {
        root   html;
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }
}

Change listen 80; to your desired port, e.g., 8080:
```
listen 8080;
```

3. Test the configuration

Run:

nginx -t

If it says syntax is ok and test is successful, your config is valid.
If there are errors, check the line numbers it reports.

4. Restart Nginx

If installed via Homebrew:

brew services restart nginx

Or manually:

sudo nginx -s reload

5. Access via new port

In your browser or curl:

http://localhost:8080

Extra Notes:

Ports <1024 require sudo on macOS. So using ports like 80 will need root, but 8080 or 3000 does not.
If you want to run multiple Nginx servers simultaneously, each must have a unique port.

I can also give a quick trick to temporarily run Nginx on any port without editing nginx.conf using a command line flag. It’s handy for testing. Do you want me to show that?

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