[jggimi]

I will guess you are running nginx chrooted, because that is the default configuration, and is likely why you are unable to reach the file. The default will not permit nginx to reach any file outside of the /var/www directory structure.

See the '-u' option in the nginx(8) man page to disable this security feature and permit nginx to access all filesystems.

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Edited to add: if instead you operate nginx chrooted with all files inside /var/www, you will prevent a compromised webserver from reaching the rest of your data.