Created attachment 1196160 [details]
sample tmp nginx.conf

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1371626 +++

DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM:
Due to configure arguments, non-root users cannot run nginx.
Of course nginx has the user directive (http://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_core_module.html#user) to configure worker process user & group but non-root users directly launching unprivileged nginx instances is a legitimate use-case that nginx is designed to support.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
nginx 1.8.1-1.el7 (or el6)

HOW REPRODUCIBLE:
Always

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
1. yum install rh-nginx18
2. Save minimal conf file from https://www.exratione.com/2014/03/running-nginx-as-a-non-root-user/ to /tmp/nginx.conf and then delete the mime.types line -- `sed -i /mime/d /tmp/nginx.conf`
     (Alternatively, download attached config which is the same)
3. Notice that the config appropriately resets pid & access_log & error_log and others to /tmp/xxx
4. Try executing as as non-root user
   useradd webperson
   su - webperson
   scl enable rh-nginx18 -- nginx -c /tmp/nginx.conf

ACTUAL RESULTS:
[webperson@a72 ~]$ scl enable rh-nginx18 -- nginx -c /tmp/nginx.conf
nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)
2016/08/30 23:16:25 [emerg] 2695#0: mkdir() "/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lib/nginx/tmp/proxy" failed (13: Permission denied)

EXPECTED RESULTS:
nginx should start up, daemonize, spawn worker processes, and begin handling requests, having never tried to do open anything in /var/opt/rh. Should be able to see processes with `ps -FC nginx` or `lsof -c nginx`.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
The error_log option doesn't seem to be overriding the --error-log-path option as it should according to the nginx documentation (https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/installoptions). Same goes for the --http-proxy-temp-path option. Interestingly, if you run this same config as root and then look at lsof, no /var/opt/rh files are opened -- you can see the access & error logs open in /tmp, e.g.:

~~~
[root@a72 tmp]# scl enable rh-nginx18 -- nginx -c /tmp/nginx.conf
[root@a72 tmp]# lsof -c nginx | egrep '/tmp|/opt'
nginx   2895  root  cwd   DIR  253,0     4096 50331777 /tmp
nginx   2895  root  txt   REG  253,0  2318776 18074163 /opt/rh/rh-nginx18/root/usr/sbin/nginx
nginx   2895  root    2w  REG  253,0        0 51325837 /tmp/error.log
nginx   2895  root    4w  REG  253,0        0 51325837 /tmp/error.log
nginx   2895  root    5w  REG  253,0        0 51325838 /tmp/access.log
nginx   2896 nginx  cwd   DIR  253,0     4096 50331777 /tmp
nginx   2896 nginx  txt   REG  253,0  2318776 18074163 /opt/rh/rh-nginx18/root/usr/sbin/nginx
nginx   2896 nginx    2w  REG  253,0        0 51325837 /tmp/error.log
nginx   2896 nginx    4w  REG  253,0        0 51325837 /tmp/error.log
nginx   2896 nginx    5w  REG  253,0        0 51325838 /tmp/access.log
~~~

Here is the nginx -V output:

~~~
[root@a72 tmp]# scl enable rh-nginx18 -- nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.8.1
built with OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013
TLS SNI support enabled
configure arguments: --prefix=/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/root/usr/share/nginx --sbin-path=/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/root/usr/sbin/nginx --conf-path=/etc/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/log/nginx/error.log --http-log-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/log/nginx/access.log --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lib/nginx/tmp/client_body --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lib/nginx/tmp/proxy --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lib/nginx/tmp/fastcgi --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lib/nginx/tmp/uwsgi --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lib/nginx/tmp/scgi --pid-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/run/nginx/nginx.pid --lock-path=/var/opt/rh/rh-nginx18/lock/subsys/nginx --user=nginx --group=nginx --with-file-aio --with-ipv6 --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_spdy_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_xslt_module --with-http_image_filter_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_gunzip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_degradation_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-mail --with-mail_ssl_module --with-pcre --add-module=./passenger-4.0.50/ext/nginx --with-debug --with-cc-opt='-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -m64 -mtune=generic' --with-ld-opt='-Wl,-z,relro -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-ld -Wl,-E'
~~~