How to Install Nginx with Brotli Compression on Ubuntu 20.04

Brotli is an open-source compression algorithm created by Google. It can be used as an alternative to Gzip, Zopfli, and Deflate. It is a generic-purpose lossless compression algorithm that compresses data using a combination of a modern variant of the LZ77 algorithm and Huffman coding. It compresses data 10 to 20 percent more than current compression algorithms.

This tutorial will show you how to install Brotli with Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04 server.

Prerequisites

• A server running Ubuntu 20.04.
• A root password has been configured on the server.

Getting Started

First, updating your system packages to the latest version is recommended. You can update all of them by running the following command:

apt-get update -y

Once all the packages are updated, you can install other dependencies by running the following command:

apt-get install dpkg-dev curl gnupg2 build-essential zlib1g-dev libpcre3 libpcre3-dev unzip -y

Once all the dependencies are installed, you can proceed to the next step.

Download Nginx and Brotli Source

Before downloading Nginx and Brotli source, you must add the Nginx repository to your system.

First, download and add the Nginx key with the following command:

curl -L https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | apt-key add -

Once the key is added, add the Nginx repository with the following command:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

Add the following lines:

deb http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ focal nginx
deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ focal nginx

Save and close the file when you are finished then update the repository with the following command:

apt-get update -y

Once the repository is updated, change the directory to /usr/local/src and download the Nginx source with the following command:

cd /usr/local/src
apt-get source nginx

Next, install all required dependencies for Nginx with the following command:

apt-get build-dep nginx -y

Once all the dependencies are installed, download the latest version of Brotli source from the Git repository with the following command:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/google/ngx_brotli.git

Next, change the directory to the Nginx source and edit the debian rules file:

cd /usr/local/src/nginx-*/
nano debian/rules

Now you will get two build environments for 'config.env.nginx' and 'config.env.nginx_debug'. Add the '--add-module=' option for ngx_brotli to both built environments.

--add-module=/usr/local/src/ngx_brotli

Save and close the file when you are finished. Now, compile and build the nginx package with ngx_brotli support with the following command:

dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc -us

Once the build is completed, you will get the nginx-*.deb packages on the '/usr/local/src' directory as shown below.

ls -l /usr/local/src/*.deb

You should get the following output:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1124244 Dec  2 06:30 /usr/local/src/nginx_1.18.0-2~focal_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10608196 Dec  2 06:30 /usr/local/src/nginx-dbg_1.18.0-2~focal_amd64.deb

Once you are finished, you can proceed to the next step.

Install Nginx and Enable Brotli Support

Now, you have Nginx packages with Brotli support. You can install them with the following command:

cd /usr/local/src/
dpkg -i *.deb

Once all packages are installed, edit the Nginx main configuration file and enable the Brotli support:

nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add the following lines below http{

    brotli on;
    brotli_comp_level 6;
    brotli_static on;
    brotli_types text/plain text/css application/javascript application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript image/x-icon image/vnd.microsoft.icon image/bmp image/svg+xml;

Save and close the file then verify the Nginx for any syntax error with the following command:

nginx -t

You should get the following output:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Next, restart the Nginx service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart nginx

Once you are finished, you can proceed to the next step.

Verify Nginx and Brotli

At this point, Nginx is installed and configured with Brotli support. Now, its time test whether Nginx Brotli support is enabled or not.

To test it, run the following command in your terminal:

curl -H 'Accept-Encoding: br' -I http://localhost

If everything is fine, you will see the result 'content-encoding: br' for brotli support as shown below:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.18.0
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 2020 06:38:17 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Last-Modified: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 14:09:01 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
ETag: W/"5e9efe7d-264"
Content-Encoding: br

Conclusion

Congratulations! you have successfully installed Nginx with Brotli support on Ubuntu 20.04 server. I hope you can now easily enable the Brotli compression in the production support. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.