What is proxy-nginx?

This is a single shell script that automates setting up an HTTPS reverse proxy on a Linux server. A reverse proxy sits in front of your actual application and forwards incoming web requests to it, the main benefit here is adding HTTPS (secure, encrypted connections) to any web service running on your server, even if that service itself only speaks plain HTTP. The script handles the full setup in one command: it validates your domain name, checks that DNS is already pointing to your server, installs the required tools (Nginx as the web server, Certbot for certificate management), requests a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt, writes the Nginx configuration to forward traffic from your public domain to a backend address you specify (such as a local port like 127.0.0.1:3000), and reloads Nginx. If the configuration check fails, it rolls back automatically. Certificate renewal is also configured automatically. A system timer runs Certbot twice a day and renews the certificate when it has 30 days or fewer left. A hook then reloads Nginx to pick up the new certificate, so the renewal process requires no manual work. The script works on most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL-family systems (CentOS Stream, Rocky, AlmaLinux), Fedora, openSUSE, and Arch. It requires root access and systemd (the standard service manager on modern Linux), and does not work in Docker containers or WSL1 environments that lack systemd. Before running, your domain's DNS A record must already point to the server's public IP address, and ports 80 and 443 must be open in any firewall rules.