Does Nginx block on file IO?

[Andy]

Hi.

I was always under the impression that Nginx is non-blocking for file
IO. Then I was told it wasn't.

I'm considering using Nginx to serve static images. Pretty much every
connection will result in a file IO. If Nginx blocks for file IO, then
using Nginx here wouldn't be any better than using Apache, right? Every
connection will lead to a file IO which blocks the entire Nginx process.
So to serve 500 concurrent connections I'll need 500 Nginx processes.

Would Nginx work in such a use case? Any tips on how to use Nginx for
serving static media?

Thanks.

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,194884,194884#msg-194884