Compile Nginx with Pagespeed Module From Source

Compile Nginx with Pagespeed Module From Source is not hard as you may think. Below NGINX setup is fit for NGINX + FastCGI Cache. It means you don’t have to use WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache or any cache plugin.

Basic Setup

Keep CentOS 7 up to date
Disable Root access
Firewall
Timezone configuration

Install Dependencies

yum install wget curl unzip gcc gcc-c++ pcre-devel zlib-devel make openssl-devel

You may also check out How to upgrade OpenSSL on Centos 7 or RHEL 7.

Compile NGINX From Source

First download ngx_pagespeed

Check the release notes for the latest version

NPS_VERSION= cd wget https://github.com/pagespeed/ngx_pagespeed/archive/v${NPS_VERSION}-beta.zip
unzip v${NPS_VERSION}-beta.zip
cd ngx_pagespeed-${NPS_VERSION}-beta/
psol_url=https://dl.google.com/dl/page-speed/psol/${NPS_VERSION}.tar.gz
[ -e scripts/format_binary_url.sh ] && psol_url=$(scripts/format_binary_url.sh PSOL_BINARY_URL)
wget ${psol_url}
tar -xzvf $(basename ${psol_url}) # extracts to psol/

Download and build nginx with support for pagespeed

Check nginx’s site for the latest version

NGINX_VERSION= cd wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-${NGINX_VERSION}.tar.gz
tar -xvzf nginx-${NGINX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd nginx-${NGINX_VERSION}/
./configure –add-module=$HOME/ngx_pagespeed-${NPS_VERSION}-beta ${PS_NGX_EXTRA_FLAGS}
make sudo
make install

Above configuration just compile NGINX with Pagespeed. I’d recommend below configuration so you can test more things. Then followed by ‘make’ and ‘sudo make install’.

./configure \
–with-pcre \
–with-http_ssl_module \
–with-http_v2_module \
–with-threads \
–with-http_image_filter_module \
–with-http_gzip_static_module \
–add-module=$HOME/ngx_pagespeed-${NPS_VERSION}-beta \
–add-module=$HOME/ngx_cache_purge-master \
–add-module=$HOME/headers-more-nginx-module-master

Note that I also have ngx_cache_purge & headers-more-nginx-module.

Configure NGINX Service

Now we will create Init Script and save it at “/etc/init.d/nginx”. Please pay attention to 3 highlighted lines (binary, configuration and pidfile) and update it properly same as your configurations. This is a bit tricky for one who is new to NGINX. Feel free to leave a comment or create a topic if you need help.

Finally, start NGINX

chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start nginx
systemctl status nginx

Nginx Status

By default, NGINX will run with 1 processor but you can configure number of processor in nginx.conf.

You will see this default index page when accessing http://IP/. I am using Chrome Extension named Wappalyzer to view site’s information.

Nginx Info

Summary

We compile NGINX with default modules like pre-built as well as Pagespeed module. It also doesn’t have issue “Failed to read PID from file /run/nginx.pid: Invalid argument” mentioned in reference #6. Please leave a comment or feedback right below.

References
1. https://modpagespeed.com/doc/build_ngx_pagespeed_from_source
2. https://modpagespeed.com/doc/configuration
3. https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/redhatnginxinit/
4. https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/gettingstarted/
5. https://github.com/pagespeed/ngx_pagespeed
6. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nginx/+bug/1581864

VNDeveloper