nginx: [emerg] unknown directive "upload_pass" after dist-upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS

[Ben Johnson]

On 8/22/2014 3:05 AM, Valentin V. Bartenev wrote:
> On Thursday 21 August 2014 21:02:43 Ben Johnson wrote:
>> Hello!
>>
>> I performed a dist-upgrade, from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS, and once
>> the dust had settled, nginx refused to start with:
>>
>> nginx: [emerg] unknown directive "upload_pass" in
>> /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com.vhost:95
>>
>> The "upload_pass" directive appears to be part of the HttpUploadModule.
>> This module was clearly installed before the dist-upgrade, because the
>> vhost in question functioned as expected before applying the upgrade.
>>
>> It is not clear which Ubuntu package includes this module. I figured,
>> "What the hell..." and installed nginx-extras, which is supposed to
>> include all of the most commonly used modules, yet the problem persists.
>>
>> It seems unlikely that the name of this directive changed. What other
>> explanations are there?
>>
> [..]
> 
> This 3rd-party module was removed from the package, because it's broken and 
> cannot be compiled with the newer versions of nginx.
> 
> See:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/nginx/+bug/1177719
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=729003
> 
>   wbr, Valentin V. Bartenev

Thank you kindly, Valentin. That explains it!

Well, that's a real disappointment. Is it no longer possible for nginx
to handle uploads in a similar manner? This was one of my favorite
features of nginx: the ability to offload large file uploads from PHP
onto nginx.

Sadly, until I can find a comparable solution to the problem of
uploading massive (2GB+) files without needing to leverage a server-side
scripting language, such as PHP, I have little choice but to stick to
obsoleted versions of nginx that support this module.

I am eager to hear how others have dealt with this most useful module's
disappearance...

Thanks again, Valentin.

-Ben