Caddy Rails

CaddyRails is a reverse proxy module for Ruby on Rails designed to integrate with Caddy, facilitating features like reverse proxying, automatic HTTPS, compression, and more.

Features

• Reverse Proxy: Simplifies forwarding requests to your application.
• Automatic HTTPS: Automatically manages SSL/TLS certificates. (Currently in progress)
• Compression: Supports Gzip, and Zstd for reducing data transfer sizes.
• Access Logging: Enables detailed logging of incoming requests.
• Connection Timeouts: Customizable read, write, and idle timeouts for connections.
• Debugging: Provides extensive debug logs to troubleshoot issues.

Installation

Install CaddyRails by navigating to your project directory and compiling the module with the following command:

make build

Once compiled, ensure that the caddy_rails binary is located within your Rails project directory for easy access.

Usage Instructions

Starting the Server

Using Default Rails Command

To start CaddyRails with the default Rails server command, simply run the following command. This will automatically find the bin/rails file and run the Rails server using the server command:

./caddy_rails serve --https_port 8443 --http_port 8012 --target_port 3000

Specifying a Custom Command

If you need to specify a custom command or additional arguments, you can provide them directly to serve:

./caddy_rails serve bin/rails s --https_port 8443 --http_port 8012 --target_port 3000

By default, serve will locate the bin/rails file and run the Rails server using the server command. If no custom command is provided, this is the default behavior.

Error Handling

If no custom command is provided and the bin/rails file does not exist, the command will raise an error indicating that the required Rails executable is missing.

Command Line Arguments

• --target-port: The port that your server should run on. caddy-server will set this value to the PORT environment variable. Default: 3000.
• --http-port: The port to listen on for HTTP traffic. Default: 80.
• --https-port: The port to listen on for HTTPS traffic. Default: 443.
• -l, --listen: The address to which to bind the listener. Default: localhost.
• --ssl-domain: The domain name to use for SSL provisioning. If not set, SSL will be disabled.
• -v, --debug: Enable verbose debug logs.
• --access-log: Enable the access log. Default: true.
• --no-compress: Disable Zstandard and Gzip compression
• --http-idle-timeout: The maximum time a client can be idle before the connection is closed. Default: 60s.
• --http-read-timeout: The maximum time a client can take to send the request headers. Default: 30s.
• --http-write-timeout: The maximum time during which the client must read the response. Default: 30s.
• --pid-file: Path to the PID file to control an existing process. Default is tmp/pids/server.pid
• --phased-restart: Using for hot reloading the existing process. Default is false
• --server-type: Using for restarting the existing process. Puma and Unicorn have different ways for hot reloading
• --stop: Using for stopping the existing process
• --anycable-enabled: Enable AnyCable. Default is false

Configuration File Generation

Generate a customized Caddyfile by running:

./caddy_rails config-init --folder_path "./config" --https_enable --ssl-domain localhost

This command creates a Caddyfile in the specified directory, tailoring it with options for SSL, compression, and logging based on provided parameters.

Command Line Arguments

• --folder-path: Directory to generate the Caddyfile in. Defaults to the current directory
• --http-host: Host address for the HTTP server. Default: localhost
• --http-port: The port for HTTP traffic. Default: 80
• --https-port: The port for HTTP traffic. Default: 443
• --enable-debug: Enable verbose debug logs
• --access-log: Enable the access log. Default: true
• --ssl-domain: The domain name for SSL. If empty, SSL is disabled
• --backend-port: THe port that the backend service listens on. Default is 8080
• --compression-enable: Enable response compression using gzip and zstd
• --anycable-enable: Enable anycable

Running the application

After the generation the Caddyfile you can run project by this command

./caddy_rails run

Important: The caddy_rails can not have enough permissions for ports 80 and 443. So you can change these ports by --http-port and --https-port, or run it via sudo or use setcap

Managing Application Lifecycle

You can manage the running Rails application in another console session using:

Phased/Hot Restart

• Stopping the Server: ./caddy_rails serve --stop
• Restarting the Server: ./caddy_rails serve --phased-restart
• Phased Restart for Puma or Hot Restart for Unicorn:

./caddy_rails serve --phased_restart --server-type puma
./caddy_rails serve --phased_restart --server-type unicorn 

These commands facilitate seamless application management, ensuring minimal downtime and flexible maintenance operations.