Build
- Ubuntu 16
- nginx version: nginx/1.10.0 (Ubuntu)
Problem
Amongst the common commands you will find online to start Nginx are:
Using a service
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Call the binary directly (assuming it located in /etc/init.d/) with start/stop/restart
/etc/init.d/nginx start
Even if you specify the configuration file using the -c option, it always throws an error.
However, it appears (for me) that neither of these options prompt a user for their PEM password if they have configured SSL or TLS certificates.
Solution
After a lot of digging you will find that calling the script directly without (start/stop/restart) prompts the user for the PEM password.
/etc/init.d/nginx
References
https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,262900,262900