Cachprax

Cachprax is a simple caching proxy server. It was made as a learning project, and was not tested in a production environment (caching proxies are pretty much obsolete anyway). Any feedback is welcome.

Requires a Linux system
Requires Go 1.22 or later.

Features

• Runs a caching proxy server that caches responses from an origin server on a given port.
  
• The cache items expire after a given time (default 10 minutes).
  
• The cache is purged after a given time (default 30 minutes).
  
• The user can start, stop, get the status of the proxy, clear the cache and get the number of items in it.
  
• A simple command for testing the connection to the origin server is provided.
• Configuration values can be managed using the config command.

Commands:

• Start the caching proxy server:

  cachprax start
  --origin: The URL of the origin server.
  --port: The port on which the caching proxy server will listen.
  --cache-expire: Cache expiration time in minutes.
  --cache-purge: Cache purge time in minutes.

  If any of the flags are not provided, the default values will be used.

• Stop the caching proxy server:

  cachprax stop

• Get the status of the caching proxy server:

  cachprax status

• Manage the cache:

  cachprax cache
  --clear: Clear the cache.
  --count: Get the number of cached items.

• Test connection to the origin server:

  cachprax conntest --origin "http://example.com"

• Manage configuration values:

  cachprax config 
  --set [key] [value]: Set a specific configuration value.
  --reset: Reset the configuration file to default values.

Configuration

Config values are stored in a cachprax.yaml file in the home directory.
They can be modified directly in the file or using the config command.
Config values are only used if the corresponding flags are not provided when starting the server, with the exception of cache_port which can not be changed through a flag and is thus always pulled from the file.

Values

• origin: The default URL of the origin server.
• proxy_port: The default port on which the caching proxy server will listen.
• cache_expire: The default cache expiration time in minutes.
• cache_purge: The default cache purge time in minutes.
• cache_port: The port on which the server used for cache operations will listen.

Default Values

origin: ""
proxy_port: 3000
cache_expire: 10
cache_purge: 30
cache_port: 3001

Installation

Option 1: Install from GitHub Releases (Precompiled Binaries)

To install Cachprax using a precompiled binary from the GitHub releases:

• Go to the Cachprax Releases page and download the latest binary for your operating system.

• After downloading, make the binary executable:

  chmod +x cachprax

• Move the binary to a directory in your $PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin):

  sudo mv cachprax /usr/local/bin/

• Confirm that Cachprax is installed by running:

  cachprax --help

Option 2: Compile and Install from Source

To compile and install the application yourself:

• Ensure that you have Go installed by running:

  go version

• Clone the repository:

  git clone https://github.com/your-repo/cachprax.git
  cd cachprax

• Build the application:

  go build -o cachprax

• Move the compiled binary to a directory in your $PATH:

  sudo mv cachprax /usr/local/bin/

• Confirm that Cachprax is installed by running:

  cachprax --help

Notes

• The server is always started as a separate process, whose PID is outputed to the standard output when starting the server.
• Cache operations (cache --clear and cache --count) are performed on a separate server running on a different port, which can be changed through the config file.
• A cachprax.yaml file is created in the home directory to store configuration values.
• A cachprax.json file is created in the tmp directory to store server metadata of the currently running server. This file is used for stop and status commands. Deleting this file will cause those commands to not work, in which case to stop the server, one must manually kill its process.
• Designed as part of this project