nginx - nginx: [emerg] bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)

I fixed this by running:

sudo apachectl stop

It turns out apache was running in the background and prevented nginx from starting on the desired port.

On Ubuntu, run:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop

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My case is different, I had to kill the running Nginx process to restart it.

Instead of

sudo systemctl restart nginx

I had to use:

sudo pkill -f nginx & wait $!
sudo systemctl start nginx

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[::]:80 is a ipv6 address.

This error can be caused if you have a nginx configuration that is listening on port 80 and also on port [::]:80.

I had the following in my default sites-available file:

listen 80;
listen [::]:80 default_server;

You can fix this by adding ipv6only=on to the [::]:80 like this:

listen 80;
listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on default_server;

For more information, see:

http://forum.linode.com/viewtopic.php?t=8580

http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpCoreModule#listen

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I found the issue that I never had before.

I just had to delete /etc/nginx/sites-available/default. Then it worked.

This deletion will delete the symlink only, As backup you can find default file in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

My conf was in /etc/nginx/default.

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I was also getting the same error.

nginx: [emerg] bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)

and when i typed the localhost in the browser, then i was getting

It works!

This is the default web page for this server.

The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet. instead of nginx welcome page, apache2 is running on the same port,

find the apache2 ports.conf file sudo /etc/apache2/ports.conf change the port other then 80 , i make it as 70 save the file restart your system

it will works for you also, if you type the localhost in the browser, you will get nginx welcome page

---

try to do this command

sudo fuser -k 443/tcp
service nginx restart

the fuser command will find the process id(PID) and the -k flag will kill the process enabling the nginx restart.

---

My issue was that I had overlapping listen directives. I have managed to figure out overlapping directives by running

grep -r listen /etc/nginx/*

Two files were listening at the same port:

/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:           listen 80;  
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default.conf:    listen 80;

---

I solved by running

sudo killall apache2

sudo fuser -k 443/tcp

finally

sudo service nginx start

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I had the same problem in letsencrypt (certbot) and nginx,

ref: https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues/5486

this error does not have a solution yet

so, a changed a cron for renew (putting a reload after renew) (using suggest from certbot)

-- in /etc/cron.d/certbot
from
0 */12 * * * root test -x /usr/bin/certbot -a \! -d /run/systemd/system && perl -e 'sleep int(rand(3600))' && certbot -q renew 
to
0 */12 * * * root test -x /usr/bin/certbot -a \! -d /run/systemd/system && perl -e 'sleep int(rand(3600))' && certbot -q renew --pre-hook "service nginx stop" --post-hook "service nginx start"

logs (short):

-- in /var/log/syslog
Jun 10 00:14:25 localhost systemd[1]: Starting Certbot...
Jun 10 00:14:38 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [error] open() "/run/nginx.pid$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: Hook command "nginx" returned error c$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: Error output from nginx:
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 $
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 f$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 $
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 f$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 $
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 f$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 $
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 f$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 $
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 f$
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost certbot[22222]: nginx: [emerg] still could not bind()
Jun 10 00:14:41 localhost systemd[1]: Started Certbot.


-- in /var/log/nginx/error.log
2018/06/10 00:14:27 [notice] 22233#22233: signal process started
2018/06/10 00:14:31 [notice] 22237#22237: signal process started
2018/06/10 00:14:33 [notice] 22240#22240: signal process started
2018/06/10 00:14:34 [notice] 22245#22245: signal process started
2018/06/10 00:14:38 [notice] 22255#22255: signal process started
2018/06/10 00:14:38 [error] 22255#22255: open() "/run/nginx.pid" failed (2: No $
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Addr$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Addre$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Addr$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Addre$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Addr$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Addre$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Addr$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Addre$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Addr$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Addre$
2018/06/10 00:14:39 [emerg] 22261#22261: still could not bind()

---

I use supervisor to run Nginx and Gunicorn side by side on a Docker container.

This was the configuration used for supervisor :

[supervisord]
nodaemon=true

[program:gunicorn]
command = /project/start.sh
user = www-data

[program:nginx]
command=/usr/sbin/nginx

The problem was how I launched Ngnix by default it runs in the foreground. This makes supervisor retry to run another instance of Nginx.

You can fix issue by adding -g 'daemon off;' to the command line or daemon off; on top of the config file, Nginx stayed in the foreground, supervisor stopped trying to run another instance.

---

First change apache listen port 80 to 8080 apache in /etc/apache2/ports.conf include

Listen 1.2.3.4:80 to 1.2.3.4:8080
sudo service apache2 restart 

or

sudo service httpd restart    // in case of centos

then add nginx as reverse proxy server that will listen apache port

server {
 listen   1.2.3.4:80;
 server_name  some.com;

 access_log  /var/log/nginx/something-access.log;

 location / {
  proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
  proxy_redirect off;
  proxy_set_header Host $host;
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
 }


location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|js|jpeg|png)$ {
   root /usr/share/nginx/html/;
}

location /404.html {
  root /usr/share/nginx/html/40x.html;
}

error_page 404 /404.html;
    location = /40x.html {
}

error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
}

# put code for static content like js/css/images/fonts
}

After changes restart nginx server

sudo service nginx restart

Now all traffic will be handled by nginx server and send all dynamic request to apache and static conten is served by nginx server.

For advance configuration like cache :

https://www.linode.com/docs/web-servers/nginx/slightly-more-advanced-configurations-for-nginx/#basic-nginx-caching

---

I know this is old, but also make sure that none of your docker containers are already on port 80. That was my issue.

---

Multiple services can be listening on the same port. This issue typically comes from mixing Apache and NGINX on the same machine.

To check:

sudo netstat -plant | grep 80

Stop Apache & Restart NGINX:

sudo systemctl stop apache2 && sudo systemctl restart nginx && sudo systemctl status nginx

---

I met similar problem. the log is like below

2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2018/10/31 12:54:20 [emerg] 128005#128005: still could not bind()
2018/10/31 12:54:23 [alert] 127997#127997: unlink() "/run/nginx.pid" failed (2: No such file or directory)
2018/10/31 22:40:48 [info] 36948#36948: Using 32768KiB of shared memory for push module in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:68
2018/10/31 22:50:40 [emerg] 37638#37638: duplicate listen options for [::]:80 in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:18
2018/10/31 22:51:33 [info] 37787#37787: Using 32768KiB of shared memory for push module in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:68

The last [emerg] shows that duplicate listen options for [::]:80 which means that there are more than one nginx block file containing [::]:80.

My solution is to remove one of the [::]:80 setting

P.S. you probably have default block file. My advice is to keep this file as default server for port 80. and remove [::]:80 from other block files

---

In my case the culprit turned out to be a server-block that contained:

        listen  127.0.0.1:80;
        listen  [::1]:80 ipv6only=on;
        server_name  localhost;

On Linux, a socket listening on a specific IP (e.g. [::1]:80) conflicts with a socket listening on the same port but any IP (i.e. [::]:80). Normally nginx will transparently deal with this problem by using a single socket behind this scenes. However, explicitly specifying ipv6only (or certain other options) on the listen directive forces nginx to (try to) create a separate socket for it, thus resulting in the Address already in use error.

Since ipv6only=on is the default anyway (since 1.3.4) the fix was simply to remove that option from this directive, and making sure ipv6only wasn't used anywhere else in my config.

---

In my case, one of the services either Apache, Apache2 or Nginx was already running and due to that I was not able to start the other service.

---

I had this error on AWS Lightsail, used the top answer above

from

listen [::]:80;

to

listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on default_server;

and then click on "reboot" button inside my AWS account, I have main server Apache and Nginx as proxy.

---

I had several *.save files (emergency dumps from nano) from different NGINX config files in my sites-avilable dir. Once I deleted these .save files, NGINX restarted fine. I assumed these were harmless since there were no corresponding symlinks, but I guess I was wrong.

---

To follow on to @lfender6445 and @SAURABH answers --

My problem was also the fact that after upgrading to Vagrant 2.2.2 Apache2 was running as a web server when the guest booted. In the past I only had nginx as a web server.

vagrant ssh into the box and run the following command to disable Apache2 from starting up whenever the guest box boots:

sudo update-rc.d -f apache2 remove

Exit ssh, vagrant halt, vagrant up. Problem solved.

---

If problem persists after trying any of the above solutions, Restart your server once. It worked for me :)

---

I have the same issue, but I see that port 80 listened by Nginx:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:80                  0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      9730/nginx 

But when I try to restart it, I have the error:

    service nginx restart
Stopping nginx:                                            [FAILED]
Starting nginx: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
nginx: [emerg] still could not bind()

My issue was in the config file, I am set PID file, and seems system cant catch it properly:

user nginx;
worker_processes 1;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

When I removed it, it worked.

---

Quick solution that worked for me on Ubuntu. First find the currently running instance of nginx:

ps aux | grep nginx

Copy the pid (e.g. 123456) and run

kill -9 123456

---

For me the problem was that I was running an app with Supervisor and another with Systemd. In the app running with Supervisor I had a config file to handle Nginx. I stoped this process and restarted Supervisor without it.

Now Nginx is launched by Systemd and I don't have the issue anymore.

---

I was running Varnish server with nginx. My varnish server was running on port 80 and for this reason, my nginx server wasn't starting. I changed the port to 8088 in all nginx configuration files but my default.conf file was in /etc/nginx/conf.d directory in Ubuntu server.

Because of my conf.d directory was included in main /etc/nginx.conf file, nginx was not starting.

After renaming the /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf to /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf.backup, nginx started successfully or I could comment out or remove the include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; from my nginx.conf file.

---