Nginx reload problem

[Maxim Dounin]

Hello!

On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 11:07:30PM +0800, li zJay wrote:

> Hello:
> 
> I found that some nginx config option doesn't take effect after
> modification with reload, the following is a simple test case:
> 
> nginx version: nginx/1.2.7
> nginx.conf:
> ============================
> worker_processes  1;
> error_log  logs/error.log  info;
> 
> events {
>     worker_connections  1024;
> }
> 
> http {
>     limit_req_zone $arg_a zone=testzone:64m rate=1r/s;
> 
>     server {
>         listen 80;
> 
>         location / {
>             limit_req zone=testzone burst=2;
>             alias /;
>         }
>     }
> }
> ============================
> 
> I change  $arg_a to $arg_b in the line 'limit_req_zone $arg_a
> zone=testzone:64m rate=1r/s;' then reload nginx, but the change doesn't
> take effect, unless I stop nginx manually and start it again.
> 
> Is this an expected behavior ? or are there any other nginx config options
> that not compatible with reload operation?

It's expected behaviour.  On such reload attempt, nginx will write 
something like:

... [emerg] ... limit_req "testzone" uses the "arg_b" variable while previously it used the "arg_a" variable

into error log, explaining why it failed to load new 
configuration.

-- 
Maxim Dounin
http://nginx.org/en/donation.html