About

What n.wtf is, why it exists, and how we build and maintain it.

What is it?

n.wtf is a customized, prebuilt distribution of the famous nginx web server, delivered as a drop-in Debian & Ubuntu repository — so you always run the latest mainline release without compiling anything.

Why do we make it?

Official Debian and Ubuntu releases track the nginx stable branch. Stable gives you a predictable API and behavior — but it also leaves you without the features that land in mainline.

Normally, getting those features means compiling and maintaining nginx yourself. With our repository in your sources, you get rolling mainline updates through apt instead.

TLS 1.3 brings real gains in performance and security, yet many distributions still aren't ready for it. We statically pack OpenSSL 4 into our nginx as standard, so TLS 1.3 works regardless of what your distro ships — and HTTP/3 comes along as a bonus. On top of that, we bundle a set of extra modules we find genuinely useful.

How do we make it?

We use the official Debian packaging scripts while pulling the latest mainline branch from nginx official. You get the exact experience of the Debian / Ubuntu nginx packages — just always on the newest release.

01Packages are built with Docker in a controlled Linux environment.

02Each supported distribution gets its own compile, to guarantee ABI and API compatibility.

03The latest OpenSSL 4 release is pulled before every packaging run, so known fixes are always included.

In case of an emergency security issue or a critical bug, we may backport a patch from an unreleased version and ship it ahead of schedule.

Current version

nginx1.31.3

OpenSSL4.0.1

Features

Everything from the Debian / Ubuntu official builds is included, with these modules added to the full and extras flavors:

auth-pam cache-purge dav-ext echo fancyindex headers-more http-geoip2 http-ipdb http-lua nchan ndk nginx-acme ngx_brotli rtmp subs-filter uploadprogress upstream-fair zstd-nginx-module

Statically built with OpenSSL 4, so you can use TLS 1.3 even on distributions that don't ship it.

nginx -V

nginx version: nginx-n.wtf/1.31.3

built by gcc 14.2.0 (Debian 14.2.0-19)

built with OpenSSL 4.0.1 9 Jun 2026

TLS SNI support enabled

configure arguments: --with-cc-opt='-g -O2 -Werror=implicit-function-declaration -ffile-prefix-map=/build/nginx=. -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fcf-protection -fPIC -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' --with-ld-opt='-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -fPIC' --with-openssl=/build/nginx/../openssl --with-openssl-opt=enable-ktls --prefix=/usr/share/nginx --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --lock-path=/var/lock/nginx.lock --pid-path=/run/nginx.pid --modules-path=/usr/lib/nginx/modules --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/body --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/fastcgi --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/proxy --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/scgi --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/uwsgi --with-compat --with-debug --with-pcre-jit --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_auth_request_module --with-http_v2_module --with-http_v3_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_slice_module --with-threads --with-http_addition_module --with-http_flv_module --with-http_geoip_module=dynamic --with-http_gunzip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_image_filter_module=dynamic --with-http_mp4_module --with-http_perl_module=dynamic --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_xslt_module=dynamic --with-mail=dynamic --with-mail_ssl_module --with-stream=dynamic --with-stream_geoip_module=dynamic --with-stream_ssl_module --with-stream_ssl_preread_module --add-module=/build/nginx/sb-modules/ngx_brotli --add-module=/build/nginx/sb-modules/zstd-nginx-module --add-module=/build/nginx/sb-modules/nginx-acme --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-headers-more-filter --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-auth-pam --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-cache-purge --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-dav-ext --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-ndk --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-echo --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-fancyindex --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-geoip2 --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/sb-modules/ngx_http_ipdb_module --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/nchan --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-lua --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/rtmp --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-uploadprogress --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-upstream-fair --add-dynamic-module=/build/nginx/debian/modules/http-subs-filter

Where to next

Installation

Install now, or grab the Docker image.

Mirrors

Find the fastest mirror near you.

Changelog

See what changed in every release.

Contact

Reach the maintainers.

License & trademark

nginx is an open-source HTTP and reverse proxy server, a mail proxy server, and a generic TCP/UDP proxy server, distributed under the 2-clause BSD-like license.

NGINX is a trademark of F5, Inc. This project simply distributes nginx binary packages and is not sponsored by or affiliated with nginx official or F5, Inc.