nginx.service for tmpfs /var/log

[lucserre@…]

Description:
When running /var/log on a tmpfs, the /var/log/nginx folder has not persisted from previous instance of running nginx, for example, after a reboot. The default error.log file /var/log/nginx/error.log is also not there, so no error logging happens.
Also, other services like fail2ban that require the log file fail to start due to that.

Fix:
added the following like to the .service file for systemd before the existing ExecStartPre line.
ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /var/log/nginx

nginx -V:
uname -a: Linux 4.14.79-v7+ #1159 armv7l GNU/Linux

[thresh]

/var/log/nginx is created when the packages are installed, and the service file assumes that. If your local setup differs from that assumption, it's only fair to provide changes like you suggested via systemctl edit or other similar ways. I don't think that belongs to the upstream packaging.