// ZSH-NGINX — NGINX COMPLETION + SERVICE-WRAPPER ALIASES

Overview

zsh-nginx is a single source line that registers a small surface for managing nginx virtual hosts on the Debian-style split layout. Sourcing the plugin sets two environment defaults, probes for sudo, defines the ngt / ngr aliases, prepends src/ (completions) and appends autoload/ (functions) to fpath, and registers en / dis / vhost via autoload -Uz. Nothing else runs at source time — the function bodies load lazily on first call. Re-sourcing the plugin is idempotent: the env defaults use : ${VAR:=default} so existing values are never clobbered.

Install

# Zinit
zinit ice lucid nocompile
zinit load MenkeTechnologies/zsh-nginx

# Oh My Zsh
git clone https://github.com/MenkeTechnologies/zsh-nginx \
    "$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-nginx"
# then: plugins+=(zsh-nginx)

# Manual
git clone https://github.com/MenkeTechnologies/zsh-nginx
source zsh-nginx/zsh-nginx.plugin.zsh

Aliases

Both aliases are prefixed with $sudo. The entrypoint probes which -p sudo at source time: if sudo is on PATH the prefix is sudo, otherwise it is the empty string and the command runs as the current user. On a systemd-only box where service nginx restart is not wired up, redefine the ngr alias to use systemctl restart nginx.

Functions

// en NAME

Enables a site by creating ln -s $NGINX_DIR/sites-available/NAME $NGINX_DIR/sites-enabled/NAME. It refuses to run without a name, errors if the config does not exist in sites-available, and reports if the site is already enabled. After the symlink is created it re-checks that the link materialised before printing success. Because it is a symlink (not a copy or move), disabling and re-enabling is lossless.

// dis NAME

Disables a site by rm -f $NGINX_DIR/sites-enabled/NAME — it removes only the symlink, never the underlying config in sites-available. It requires a name, errors if the site is not currently enabled, and re-checks that the symlink is gone before reporting success.

// vhost [options] NAME

Generates a vhost config from a template and (by default) enables it. The flow: parse flags with getopts, resolve the template, look up the owning user in /etc/passwd, compute a PHP-FPM pool port as "1" + the user's UID, sed-substitute {vhost} / {user} / {pool_port} into the template, move the result into sites-available/NAME, then optionally call en NAME and optionally splice a 127.0.0.1 NAME mapping into /etc/hosts.

Completion

Each function ships a paired #compdef completion. Candidates come from live filesystem state — ls -a over the relevant directory piped through an awk filter — not a hand-maintained list, so a site added by hand outside the plugin still tab-completes.

Templates

Two stock vhost templates ship in templates/, both targeting per-user PHP-FPM over a unix-socket fastcgi backend and both denying .ht* dotfiles. Substitution is a single sed pass over three placeholders: {vhost}, {user}, {pool_port}. To add your own, drop a file into $ZSH/plugins/nginx/templates/ and select it with vhost -t NAME.

Configuration

Two environment variables, both with : ${VAR:=default} defaults set at source time (existing values are preserved on re-source).

Examples

nginx <TAB>            # nginx flags / signals (system completion)
ngt                    # test running config ($sudo nginx -t)
ngr                    # restart service ($sudo service nginx restart)

vhost foo              # generate sites-available/foo from the default
                       #   template and enable it
vhost foo -w           # ...and also add "127.0.0.1 foo" to /etc/hosts
vhost foo -t plain_php # use the plain_php template instead
vhost foo -n           # generate only, do not enable
vhost foo -u deploy    # own the vhost as user "deploy"
vhost -l               # list currently enabled vhosts
vhost -h               # usage banner

en  foo <TAB>          # complete from sites-available
dis foo <TAB>          # complete from sites-enabled

# full local-dev loop:
vhost foo -w && ngt && ngr

Troubleshooting

Deeper internals — LOC breakdown, the vhost pipeline diagram, test coverage and design decisions — are in the Engineering Report.

Sibling plugins

Part of the MenkeTechnologies zsh plugin family — the MenkeTechnologiesMeta umbrella:

• zsh-better-npm-completion — cache-aware npm install completion
• zsh-cargo-completion — live cargo add / cargo install completion
• zsh-cpan-completion — live MetaCPAN cpan / cpanm completion
• zsh-dotnet-completion — dotnet CLI completion
• zsh-expand — spacebar expansion (11,683 tests)
• zsh-gem-completion — ruby gem install remote completion
• zsh-git-acp — 159 git aliases + add/commit/push keybindings
• zsh-git-repo-cache — index every git repo on disk
• zsh-learn — MySQL-backed learning collection / quiz
• zsh-more-completions — 33,175-file mega completion corpus
• zsh-pip-description-completion — pip remote completion with descriptions
• zsh-sed-sub — in-place sed substitution on the command line
• zsh-sudo — ESC ESC to prepend sudo
• zsh-xcode-completions — xcodebuild / xcrun / swift completion