The following is a default Nginx configuration file as referred to in my NGinx Notes from URL Redirect Project on Google Cloud with Terraform & Packer post.

user       www www;  ## Default: nobody
worker_processes  5;  ## Default: 1
error_log  logs/error.log;
pid        logs/nginx.pid;
worker_rlimit_nofile 8192;

events {
  worker_connections  4096;  ## Default: 1024
}

http {
  include    conf/mime.types;
  include    /etc/nginx/proxy.conf;
  include    /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
  index    index.html index.htm index.php;

  default_type application/octet-stream;
  log_format   main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local]  $status '
    '"$request" $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
  access_log   logs/access.log  main;
  sendfile     on;
  tcp_nopush   on;
  server_names_hash_bucket_size 128; # this seems to be required for some vhosts

  server { # php/fastcgi
    listen       80;
    server_name  domain1.com www.domain1.com;
    access_log   logs/domain1.access.log  main;
    root         html;

    location ~ \.php$ {
      fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:1025;
    }
  }

  server { # simple reverse-proxy
    listen       80;
    server_name  domain2.com www.domain2.com;
    access_log   logs/domain2.access.log  main;

    # serve static files
    location ~ ^/(images|javascript|js|css|flash|media|static)/  {
      root    /var/www/virtual/big.server.com/htdocs;
      expires 30d;
    }

    # pass requests for dynamic content to rails/turbogears/zope, et al
    location / {
      proxy_pass      http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    }
  }

  upstream big_server_com {
    server 127.0.0.3:8000 weight=5;
    server 127.0.0.3:8001 weight=5;
    server 192.168.0.1:8000;
    server 192.168.0.1:8001;
  }

  server { # simple load balancing
    listen          80;
    server_name     big.server.com;
    access_log      logs/big.server.access.log main;

    location / {
      proxy_pass      http://big_server_com;
    }
  }
}

Another sample file is shown below.

#user  nobody;
#Defines which Linux system user will own and run the Nginx server

worker_processes  1;
#Referes to single threaded process. Generally set to be equal to the number of CPUs or cores.

#error_log  logs/error.log; #error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
#Specifies the file where server logs. 

#pid        logs/nginx.pid;
#nginx will write its master process ID(PID).

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
    # worker_processes and worker_connections allows you to calculate maxclients value: 
    # max_clients = worker_processes * worker_connections
}


http {
    include       mime.types;
    # anything written in /opt/nginx/conf/mime.types is interpreted as if written inside the http { } block

    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    #

    #log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
    #                  '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    #                  '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    #access_log  logs/access.log  main;

    sendfile        on;
    # If serving locally stored static files, sendfile is essential to speed up the server,
    # But if using as reverse proxy one can deactivate it

    #tcp_nopush     on;
    # works opposite to tcp_nodelay. Instead of optimizing delays, it optimizes the amount of data sent at once.

    #keepalive_timeout  0;
    keepalive_timeout  65;
    # timeout during which a keep-alive client connection will stay open.

    #gzip  on;
    # tells the server to use on-the-fly gzip compression.

    server {
        # You would want to make a separate file with its own server block for each virtual domain
        # on your server and then include them.
        listen       80;
        #tells Nginx the hostname and the TCP port where it should listen for HTTP connections.
        # listen 80; is equivalent to listen *:80;

        server_name  localhost;
        # lets you doname-based virtual hosting

        #charset koi8-r;

        #access_log  logs/host.access.log  main;

        location / {
            #The location setting lets you configure how nginx responds to requests for resources within the server.
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }

        #error_page  404              /404.html;

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   html;
        }

        # proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #    proxy_pass   http://127.0.0.1;
        #}

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #    root           html;
        #    fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
        #    fastcgi_index  index.php;
        #    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /scripts$fastcgi_script_name;
        #    include        fastcgi_params;
        #}

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        # concurs with nginx's one
        #
        #location ~ /\.ht {
        #    deny  all;
        #}
    }


    # another virtual host using mix of IP-, name-, and port-based configuration
    #
    #server {
    #    listen       8000;
    #    listen       somename:8080;
    #    server_name  somename  alias  another.alias;

    #    location / {
    #        root   html;
    #        index  index.html index.htm;
    #    }
    #}


    # HTTPS server
    #
    #server {
    #    listen       443 ssl;
    #    server_name  localhost;

    #    ssl_certificate      cert.pem;
    #    ssl_certificate_key  cert.key;

    #    ssl_session_cache    shared:SSL:1m;
    #    ssl_session_timeout  5m;

    #    ssl_ciphers  HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
    #    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers  on;

    #    location / {
    #        root   html;
    #        index  index.html index.htm;
    #    }
    #}

}