How to run Nginx docker container with custom config?

Question

As mentioned in the NGiNX documentation, upstream is supposed to be defined in an http context.

As mentioned in nginx unkown directive “upstream”:

When that file is included normally by nginx.conf, it is included already inside the http context:

http {
  include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

You either need to use -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf or make a small wrapper like the above block and nginx -c it.

In case of Docker, you can see different options with abevoelker/docker-nginx:

docker run -v /tmp/foo:/foo abevoelker/nginx nginx -c /foo/nginx.conf

For a default nginx.conf, check your CMD:

CMD ["nginx", "-c", "/data/conf/nginx.conf"]