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https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris
Serve your /nix/store directory over the internet :sparkles:
https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris
http nix perl
Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation
Serve your /nix/store directory over the internet :sparkles:
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris
- Owner: thoughtpolice
- License: gpl-3.0
- Created: 2018-10-05T10:33:11.000Z (about 6 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2022-02-09T17:34:33.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-10-20T20:21:08.031Z (2 months ago)
- Topics: http, nix, perl
- Language: Perl
- Homepage:
- Size: 124 KB
- Stars: 83
- Watchers: 7
- Forks: 4
- Open Issues: 7
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: readme.org
- Changelog: changelog.org
- Contributing: .github/CONTRIBUTING.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: COPYING
- Codeowners: .github/CODEOWNERS
- Security: .github/SECURITY.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
* Eris - a binary cache for Nix ✨
[[https://img.shields.io/badge/version-0.1pre-blue.svg]] [[https://img.shields.io/badge/license-GPL%20(%3E%3D%203)-orange.svg]] [[https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris/workflows/Continuous%20Integration/badge.svg]]
Eris is an HTTP server and web application that can act as a "binary cache" for
[[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]] -- it serves your ~/nix/store~ directory over an HTTP server to other
clients on the network. This means they can download files from your
~/nix/store~ very easily.
There are several ways to host a Nix cache, including S3, [[https://nixos.org/hydra/][Hydra]], the lightweight
(but inflexible, slow) [[https://github.com/edolstra/nix-serve][nix-serve]], as well as the newer (unknown) [[https://github.com/serokell/nix-cache][nix-cache]]. But
Eris tries to strike a balance between usability and power. It does one thing
and only one thing: *serve a Nix cache*. It's for when you want to serve your
cache temporarily -- or long term, for many remote, possibly authenticated users
-- without the complexity of setting up something like [[https://nixos.org/hydra/][Hydra]].
Eris is written in Perl and built using *[[https://mojolicious.org][Mojolicious]]*.
* Features
- Easier to use and install than the competition.
- It actually has documentation, so you know how to use it.
- You can run it from the command line.
- Or run it on [[https://nixos.org][NixOS]].
- Or non-NixOS, via ~systemd~.
- Powerful, flexible, Perl-like configuration language.
- It's like JSON, with more sigils, and comments.
- Comments are a useful feature in a configuration language.
- Comes with documentation, including a ~man~ page!
- You're also reading a bunch of documentation right now.
- It's very useful to write documentation for your software projects.
- The source code is also well commented.
- Supports HTTP authentication for Nix 2.0, via ~netrc~
- Lock away your treasure, so nobody can access it.
- Or run it on the internet for everyone to use.
- Support for signed caches
- Or unsigned ones, if you're feeling daring.
- It can also read existing secret keys from a file. Reading files is
*serious business*!
* Table of Contents :TOC_4_gh:
- [[#eris---a-binary-cache-for-nix-][Eris - a binary cache for Nix ✨]]
- [[#features][Features]]
- [[#installation][Installation]]
- [[#usage][Usage]]
- [[#quick-start-running-eris-standalone][Quick start: running ~eris~ standalone]]
- [[#quick-start-nixos-system-environment][Quick start: NixOS system environment]]
- [[#configuration][Configuration]]
- [[#basic-configuration][Basic configuration]]
- [[#listening-ports-and-addresses][Listening ports and addresses]]
- [[#signing-support][Signing support]]
- [[#no-signature-mode]['No signature'-mode]]
- [[#using-pre-generated-keys][Using pre-generated keys]]
- [[#support-for-private-users-via-http-authentication][Support for private users via HTTP authentication]]
- [[#tls-support][TLS support]]
- [[#nixos-specific-notes][NixOS-specific notes]]
- [[#checking-mojolicious-server-status][Checking Mojolicious server status]]
- [[#full-configuration-file-reference][Full configuration file reference]]
- [[#deployment][Deployment]]
- [[#running-eris-standalone][Running Eris standalone]]
- [[#running-eris-as-a-nixos-service][Running Eris as a NixOS service]]
- [[#running-eris-as-a-service-on-any-linux-distribution][Running Eris as a service on any Linux distribution]]
- [[#http-api][HTTP API]]
- [[#basic-nix-http-api][Basic Nix HTTP API]]
- [[#eris-http-api-v1][Eris HTTP API (v1)]]
- [[#demo-build-a-private-cache-with-cloudflare-and-packetnet][Demo: build a private cache with CloudFlare and Packet.net]]
- [[#faq][FAQ]]
- [[#why-write-this][Why write this?]]
- [[#whats-with-the-name][What's with the name?]]
- [[#does-eris-handle-cache-uploads][Does Eris handle cache /uploads/?]]
- [[#what-about-alternative-systems-like-cachix][What about alternative systems like Cachix?]]
- [[#austin-you-wrote-this-in-perl][Austin, you wrote this in /Perl/?]]
- [[#hacking][Hacking]]
- [[#running-eris-in-place][Running Eris in-place]]
- [[#running-the-tests][Running the tests]]
- [[#protip-running-eris-behind-ngrok][Protip: Running Eris behind Ngrok]]
- [[#todos][TODOs]]
- [[#dynamic-routes][Dynamic routes]]
- [[#lets-encrypt-integration][Let's Encrypt integration]]
- [[#authors][Authors]]
- [[#license][License]]
* Installation
Eris requires you to have the [[https://nixos.org/nix/][Nix package manager]] *version 2.0 or later*
installed. It may be installed on any standard Intel/AMD Linux system
(regardless of the distribution choice), as well as other hardware platforms
such as AArch64 where Nix is available. It might work on macOS. See the [[http://nixos.org/nix/][Nix]]
website for more information.
Provided you have installed Nix, no further work is necessary to get Eris to
serve your Nix store as a binary cache. Read on.
*NixOS Users*: There is an Eris module for NixOS that makes setup near-automatic
using ~configuration.nix~, as you expect.
Eris currently *is not available in upstream Nixpkgs*. Therefore, you must
install it from this repository, which is where the package and NixOS module are
both located.
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ git clone https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris.git && cd eris/
$ nix-env -i $(nix-build --no-link -Q release.nix -A eris)
...
installing 'eris-X.YpreN_XXXXXXX'
$ nix-env -q | grep eris
eris-X.YpreN_XXXXXXX
$
#+END_SRC
You're done, and there should now be an ~eris~ binary available in your user
environment and on your ~$PATH~ now (from under ~$HOME/.nix-profile/bin~).
The above command installs ~eris~ with a fixed version of the Nix package set,
ensuring that it's correctly built against a known set of tested dependencies.
(This is specified in ~release.nix~ and ~nix/nixpkgs.json~.)
* Usage
** Quick start: running ~eris~ standalone
Now that ~eris~ is installed, you can quickly run it out of the box with
no further configuration:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ eris -f
[Thu Oct 4 14:29:48 2018] [info] Listening at "http://*:8080"
Server available at http://127.0.0.1:8080
[Thu Oct 4 14:29:48 2018] [info] Manager 50265 started
[Thu Oct 4 14:29:48 2018] [info] Worker 51617 started
[Thu Oct 4 14:29:48 2018] [info] Worker 51618 started
[Thu Oct 4 14:29:48 2018] [info] Worker 51619 started
...
#+END_SRC
Congratulations! Your ~/nix/store~ is now being served on
~https://localhost:8080~. *Be careful if you have secrets in your Nix store!*
This won't bind to public IPs by default, only ~localhost~, but you should still
be aware of that. You can hit ~Ctrl-C~ at any time to stop this server.
If you're not using NixOS, you can skip to the [[Configuration]] section.
** Quick start: NixOS system environment
Because Eris currently isn't available in [[https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs][upstream nixpkgs]], if you wish to use
and manage Eris as a NixOS module, you must clone this repository, and manually
add the eris ~module.nix~ file to your ~configuration.nix~.
Let's assume your configuration is located at ~/etc/nixos/configuration.nix~,
and you've cloned Eris into ~/etc/nixos/eris/~. Then you can import the Eris
module into your configuration like so:
#+BEGIN_SRC nix
{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
{
imports = [
./eris/module.nix
];
# ...
}
#+END_SRC
Now you have ~services.eris-git~ available. You can enable Eris on ~localhost~
just like the above manual command by setting the option:
#+BEGIN_SRC nix
{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
{
services.eris-git.enable = true;
}
#+END_SRC
If you don't want to clone a git repository first, you can also use *Import From
Derivation* (IFD) in order to have Nix clone the repository and import the
module at evaluation time. First, clone a copy of ~eris.git~ and get the
revision and hash you need:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ nix run nixpkgs.nix-prefetch-git -c nix-prefetch-git \
https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris.git
...
git revision is 22973527727a3747349f2d6f234f20fd459f05c3
path is /nix/store/61411d70dydyqp220n1kd323gipq6skn-eris
git human-readable version is -- none --
Commit date is 2018-10-03 13:45:42 +0100
hash is 0qaw9kjj26xm3lq339z4bzr8vy3d997yxcapc9z9217ahzpgqhws
{
"url": "https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris",
"rev": "22973527727a3747349f2d6f234f20fd459f05c3",
"date": "2018-10-03T13:45:42+01:00",
"sha256": "0qaw9kjj26xm3lq339z4bzr8vy3d997yxcapc9z9217ahzpgqhws",
"fetchSubmodules": false
}
#+END_SRC
Then, import this using IFD in your ~configuration.nix~:
#+BEGIN_SRC nix
{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
let
eris = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
owner = "thoughtpolice";
repo = "eris";
rev = "22973527727a3747349f2d6f234f20fd459f05c3";
sha256 = "0qaw9kjj26xm3lq339z4bzr8vy3d997yxcapc9z9217ahzpgqhws";
};
in
{
imports = [
"${eris}/module.nix"
];
# ...
services.eris-git.enable = true;
}
#+END_SRC
*Note*: IFD is not available in restricted build environments (such as Hydra CI)
servers, so this method is not adviseable if you wish to continuously integrate
your NixOS configuration files. This method works fine however for simple
systems or workstations.
* Configuration
Eris is configured using [[https://mojolicious.org/perldoc/Mojolicious/Plugin/Config][Mojolicious::Plugin::Config]], which uses a Perl-like
configuration format that can contain live code for flexibility in deployment.
*** Basic configuration
By default, Eris starts up by reading a file named ~eris.conf~, *in the CWD
where you execute it*.
This file is not JSON, but a Perl-based configuration file that can use general
Perl code for configuration. The general form looks like this:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
option1 => 'value', # strings
option2 => 1, # integers
option3 => [ 1, 2 ], # arrays
option4 => { # hashes ("objects")
param1 => 'value1',
param2 => 'value2',
},
option5 => $ENV{VALUE} || "default", # read '$VALUE' from the environment
}
#+END_SRC
Comments start with ~#~, and trailing commas are allowed in all positions, just
as regular Perl code allows.
The last example of ~option5~ shows how to use the Perl-based nature to your
advantage, by instead reading a value out of the environment at startup time,
with a default option provided. By utilizing this, you can get a lot of
flexibility out of the configuration file format with pretty minimal fuss.
*** Listening ports and addresses
Listening ports and addresses for the HTTP server are configured through the
~listen~ option in ~eris.conf~. This parameter takes a list of strings,
specified as URLs, which specify the connection information, somewhat like an
ODBC/JDBC connection string. The configuration is best expressed by some
examples:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
listen => [
'http://*:3000', # listen on all IPv4 interfaces, on port 3000
'http://[::]:3000', # same, but on all IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces
'http://[::1]:3000', # IPv6 only
'http://*:3000?reuse=1', # enable SO_REUSEPORT
'https://*:4000', # listen on HTTPS, as well. uses built-in testing certs
# specify a custom certificate and keyfile
'https://*:3000?cert=/x/server.crt&key=/y/server.key',
# listen on a (percent-encoded) unix socket path, e.g. for frontend proxies
# this listens in /tmp/eris.sock
'http+unix://%2Ftmp%2Feris.sock',
]
}
#+END_SRC
*** Signing support
Packages are signed "on the fly" when served by the cache. You can configure
signing in one of three modes:
1. No signing (the default mode).
2. Hard-coded keys, generated/procured ahead of time.
These three behaviors are controlled using the ~signing~ option in ~eris.conf~.
**** 'No signature'-mode
The default mode is to not use signatures at all, which can be specified using
the ~none~ setting:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
signing => 'none',
}
#+END_SRC
**** Using pre-generated keys
Pre-generated keys are also easy; rather than a freeform string, you simply use
an options hash to specify the hostname, and the files containing the
public and private keys.
Assuming you generate a set of keys using ~nix-store --generate-binary-cache-key
cache.example.com-1 /etc/nix/cache.sk /etc/nix/cache.pk~, you can configure Eris
with:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
signing => {
host => 'cache.example.com-1',
private => '/etc/nix/cache.sk',
},
}
#+END_SRC
The host attribute can be omitted when the private key is in the form of ~host:key~.
*** Support for private users via HTTP authentication
You can add support for basic HTTP authentication via the ~users~ field in
~eris.conf~, which contains a list of ~user:password~ strings.
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
users => [
'austin:rules',
'david:rocks'
],
}
#+END_SRC
Given the above configuration, you can test the endpoint with ~curl~:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
# this works
curl -u austin:rules http://eris/nix-cache-info
# this fails
curl -u david:rules http://eris/nix-cache-info
# and so does this
curl http://eris/nix-cache-info
#+END_SRC
Once this configuration is in place, clients can authenticate with the server
using a standard cURL ~.netrc~ configuration file. This file takes the following
form:
#+BEGIN_SRC
machine
login
password
...
#+END_SRC
Entries may be repeated to provide multiple logins for different caches.
Now, you can use the option ~--option netrc-file /path/to/netrc~ with any of
your ~nix~ commands in order to authenticate properly, e.g.
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
nix --option netrc-file /path/to/netrc copy --from http://.../ /nix/store/...
#+END_SRC
*NOTE*: The path must be absolute.
Check out [[https://ec.haxx.se/usingcurl-netrc.html][the cURL manual page for ~.netrc~ files]], and the [[https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#name-11][nix.conf manual]]
(particularly the ~netrc-file~ option) for more information.
*** TLS support
TLS support is controlled by the ~listen~ parameter in ~eris.conf~, as shown
earlier. In particular, simply specifying an HTTPS URI in the ~listen~
configuration will use a built-in set of testing certificates, distributed with
Mojolicious:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
listen => ['https://*:443'],
}
#+END_SRC
But you almost _definitely do not want to do this_, since there's no way for
clients to securely verify the certificate. Provided you do have a signed, valid
certificate, specifying the key and certificate is done with the ~&cert=~ and
~&key=~ URL parameters:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
listen => [ 'https://*:443?cert=/etc/eris/ssl.crt&key=/etc/eris/ssl.key' ],
}
#+END_SRC
*** NixOS-specific notes
There are a few NixOS-specific things to note, enforced primarily by the NixOS
module and systemd, which users might want to be aware of:
1. *Eris has no visible /tmp dir*. Do not try to include or write files
here; they will never be visible by any other service, due to
~PrivateTemp=true~ being specified for systemd.
2. *Eris has no assigned user*. The module uses systemd's ~DynamicUser=true~
directive, so UIDs are assigned dynamically to the service. (This could
be changed in the future but requires some upstream NixOS coordination
for reserving UIDs.)
3. *Eris is part of the ~adm~ group*. The intention is that members of the
~adm~ group will be able to do things like rotate signing keys, located
under ~/etc/eris~; these actions don't require full admin privileges, but
~eris~ will want to read the results.
3. *Eris can only read ~/etc/eris~ and almost nothing else. It cannot write
there*. We use an array of systemd's filesystem namespace features to
essentially allow the path ~/etc/eris~ to be bind-mounted inside the
service.
This means that even though ~eris~ is part of the ~adm~ group, it cannot
read almost anything else in ~/etc~ anyway.
Due to this combination of features, if you would like to keep your keys,
etc in a safe, read-only place, it's suggested to put them in ~/etc/eris~
and mark them as read-only files with strict visibility permission.
** Checking Mojolicious server status
Eris uses the [[https://metacpan.org/pod/Mojolicious::Plugin::Status][Mojolicious::Plugin::Status]] module in order to provide some basic
information about the running machine. The server status can be found by viewing
~http://localhost:8080/mojo-status~, which will show you the server uptime,
currently connected clients, and more, formatted as a nice, live HTML page.
You must enable the status plugin by setting the configuration value ~status =>
1~ in ~eris.conf~
** Full configuration file reference
Check out [[https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris/blob/master/conf/eris.conf.example][./conf/eris.conf.example]] in this repository for the full
configuration file reference, along with some examples.
* Deployment
There are several options for running the cache server, but the following three
outline the most typical scenarios.
** Running Eris standalone
As you saw above, you can easily install Eris into the Nix environment of your
user account, making it trivial and easy to quickly export your Nix store. (You
can even run it directly from the source code repository, too. See [[Hacking]] for
more.)
In the original example above, we executed the standalone ~eris~ program in
/foreground mode/, using the ~-f~ flag. By default, ~eris~ executes in daemon
mode: it forks a process, writes a ~.pid~ file, and then detaches from the host
shell.
This means if you simply log into a machine and run ~eris~, it will immediately
fork and start running. When you log out, it will stay running. That's all you
have to do! In order to stop the running daemon, just execute ~eris -s~, which
will kill the prior worker processes, using the ~.pid~ file.
And, of course, if you'd like to keep it running while in foreground mode, be
sure to run it behind something like ~tmux~ or ~screen~!
** Running Eris as a NixOS service
Eris comes with a NixOS-compatible service module, allowing you to quickly and
easily serve your Nix store on any machine you're running. We saw how to do this
earlier, but to recap, after importing, just add the following lines to your
configuration:
#+BEGIN_SRC nix
{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
{
# ...
services.eris-git.enable = true;
}
#+END_SRC
Like above, this defaults to only serving the HTTP cache on ~localhost~ for
security reasons, so you'll need to tweak the configuration to expose it on your
LAN/WAN address.
Check ~module.nix~ for information on the configuration options.
** Running Eris as a service on any Linux distribution
Eris can also be deployed on non-NixOS machines, which is often convenient for
users and many deployment situations where NixOS isn't available.
The easiest way to do this is to first log in as the ~root~ user on your Linux
machine with Nix installed. For Nix-on-Linux, the root user controls the
default set of system profiles and channels, so we'll want to install it
there.
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ whoami
root
$ nix run nixpkgs.git -c git clone https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris.git
$ cd eris/
$ nix-env -i $(nix-build --no-link -Q release.nix -A eris)
#+END_SRC
~eris~ is now installed for the ~root~ user. This installs the ~eris~ outputs
into the default profile, which includes an ~eris.service~ file for systemd.
By installing it into the root user, we can give it a stable path.
Now, you can link this file into the default systemd search path, enable it,
and start it.
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ systemctl link /nix/var/nix/profiles/system/sw/lib/systemd/system/eris.service
$ systemctl enable eris
$ systemctl start eris
#+END_SRC
Whenever you want to upgrade ~eris~, just install a new version of the package
into the ~root~ users account (e.g. by running ~git pull~ and re-performing the
installation.) ~systemd~ will still follow the same stable symbolic link name to
the updated filesystem paths.
Likewise, there is also a stable path to the ~eris~ binary installed in the
default profile, located at:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
/nix/var/nix/profiles/system/sw/bin/eris
#+END_SRC
Note that, because this ~eris.service~ file is inside ~/nix/store~, it is
read-only. You are advised to carefully examine the service file and see if it
meets your needs. If it doesn't, which is possible, simply copying it to
~/etc/system/systemd/~ on your system and following the same commands above will
give you a version you can edit.
* HTTP API
There are only a couple HTTP endpoints that Nix actually relies on in order to
download files from an HTTP server. But Eris exposes a few more, too.
** Basic Nix HTTP API
There are three primary endpoints a Nix-compliant HTTP cache must implement:
1. ~/nix-cache-info~ -- information about the cache server, including where
the Nix store is located.
2. ~/:hash.narinfo~ -- the narinfo endpoint. A ~GET~ request against this
server endpoint will give back information about the resulting object named
~:hash~ in the store, including its path, if it exists. If the object cannot
be found in the store, a 404 error code is returned.
3. ~/nar/:hash.nar~ -- the download endpoint. A ~GET~ request against
this endpoint will download the ~.nar~ file for the given store object,
identified by ~:hash~.
** Eris HTTP API (v1)
The prior endpoints give you enough to query Nix packages from the store, but
Eris also exposes a few extra endpoints, which are probably more useful for
end-users, or scripting tools.
- ~/v1/public-key~ -- the Ed25519 public key, which all served objects will be
signed by, This would be useful in scripting environments to identify what
key the server will sign with. If a server is not configured to sign
downloaded objects, a 404 error code is returned.
- ~/v1/version~ -- the version of ~Eris~, in traditional Nix format, including
pre-release/git information if applicable. This endpoint is always available
and will never return a non-200 error code, outside of "catastrophic"
situations (network/disk/ghosts attacking you).
* Demo: build a private cache with [[https://www.cloudflare.com][CloudFlare]] and [[https://www.packet.net][Packet.net]]
A demonstration of a full-fledged deployment on top of [[https://www.packet.net][Packet.net]] using
[[https://www.cloudflare.com][CloudFlare]] as a frontend firewall, cache, and DNS service is provided. Thanks to
the [[https://www.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-alliance/][Bandwidth Alliance]], egress between Packet and CloudFlare is free, so the
only costs you pay for the cache server are for the physical hardware.
See [[./demo/readme.org][the ~./demo/~ directory]] for more information.
* FAQ
** Why write this?
A few reasons:
1. I wanted something more configurable than [[https://github.com/edolstra/nix-serve][nix-serve]], which is a bit
barebones and doesn't include necessary features like authentication.
2. I wanted something /less heavyweight/ and obscure than [[https://nixos.org/hydra/][Hydra]], which I've
had many painful experiences with.
3. It was a good reason to learn to use [[https://mojolicious.org][Mojolicious]], which is awesome.
** What's with the name?
Eris is the daughter of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(mythology)][Nyx]] in Greek mythology.
** Does Eris handle cache /uploads/?
No. It's assumed you will use some mechanism such as ~nix copy --to ssh://...~
in order to securely copy store objects to the remote server that runs Eris.
They will then become available in the cache.
** What about alternative systems like Cachix?
[[https://cachix.org][Cachix]] is a new service for the NixOS community that offers simple, easy-to-use
hosting for Nix binary caches. You might be wondering if you should use Cachix
or Eris for your project.
Here's my simple guideline as the author of Eris: *you probably want to use
Cachix if at all possible*. If you're doing open source work it's also freely
available, which is especially attractive, but paid, closed-source caches should
be available soon.
The reasons for this are a bit obvious but it's essentially worth repeating
here: you probably don't want to run and maintain your own binary cache server.
NixOS is wonderful but even then, it is a constant maintenance overhead of
tuning, deployment, upgrades, and security.
On top of that, Eris doesn't really care about or involve itself in the /other/
half required of a full caching system: uploads, as previously mentioned. Cachix
does 'first-class' authenticated uploads, i.e. it is a feature. Using SSH is
fine, and keeps Eris simple, but involves secondary authorization/policy
management at your own expense. (It's possible this might change one day, but
it's unlikely any time in the near-future.)
** Austin, you wrote this in /Perl/?
A lot of people know me (Austin Seipp, the primary author) as a Haskell
programmer. But even outside of that, Perl doesn't ever seem vogue these days
for new projects (a truly damning image, coming from an industry that's mostly
fashion-driven), which might leave some to wonder. So this is a quick way of
saying: I know you're thinking "Why would you choose Perl", and the answer may
surprise you.
The short of it is: because I like Perl, and it was a chance to learn how to use
Mojolicious (which I can now say I like quite a lot). That is basically all it
comes down to. From this point of view I consider Eris a complete success: it
has been relatively painfree to develop (thanks to Mojo) and I believe its
future evolution will work out well, and remain clean, and easy to understand,
over time.
* Hacking
If you want to work on the source code, here are a few tips and tricks.
** Running Eris in-place
The easiest way to get started with Eris is to just run it right out of this
repository by executing the ~eris.pl~ script:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ git clone https://github.com/thoughtpolice/eris.git
$ cd eris
$ MOJO_MODE=development ./eris.pl -f
#+END_SRC
This uses ~nix-shell~'s support for shebang lines in order to immediately run
the underlying Perl script with no fuss. You can just hack on ~eris.pl~ in place
and restart as you like.
~MOJO_MODE=development~ sets up development mode for the HTTP Route handlers,
which makes debugging errors and faults much easier.
If you want to test the whole build process and run the resulting executable
from the Nix derivation, you can do that with ~nix-build~:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
export MOJO_MODE=development
$(nix-build -Q --no-out-link release.nix -A eris)/bin/eris -f
#+END_SRC
** Running the tests
Running the tests can be done using ~nix build~ quite easily:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ nix build -f release.nix test
#+END_SRC
This actually runs the complete set of tests that exist under the ~./t/~
directory. Each file contains its own NixOS-based test which is collected
into a full attrset, based on the filename (~test.nix~ is very short, so feel
free to read it yourself).
** Protip: Running Eris behind Ngrok
[[https://ngrok.io][ngrok]] is an online service that exposes public URLs for local webservers and is
useful for testing integration. It comes with a free tier. However, it can also
be used to quickly expose Eris to remote machines. The free tier only allows 40
connections per minute, however, so it's only useful for light testing.
The ~ngrok~ binary is available in Nixpkgs; you can install and authenticate
with the http://ngrok.io service as follows, then launch an HTTP tunnel:
#+BEGIN_SRC bash
$ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.ngrok
$ ngrok authtoken ...
$ ngrok http 8080
#+END_SRC
Now, you're free to use the randomly generated ~ngrok.io~ domain as a temporary
binary cache.
Note that if you do this, you probably want to enable Hypnotoad's ~proxy~
setting so that the server will correctly recognize ~X-Forwarded-For~ headers
and user IPs properly. Add something like this to your ~eris.conf~:
#+BEGIN_SRC perl
{
proxy => 1,
}
#+END_SRC
* TODOs
These are basically in the order I wish to tackle them.
** Dynamic routes
It would be interesting to explore 'dynamic routes' for caches, e.g. different
caches located at different HTTP endpoints with different authentication
mechanisms, or backends.
** Let's Encrypt integration
For those of us out there who trust nobody, it would be nice if the Hypnotoad
server could auto-start itself with a set of TLS certificates.
* Authors
See [[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thoughtpolice/eris/master/AUTHORS.txt][AUTHORS.txt]] for the list of contributors to the project.
* License
*GPLv3 or later*. See [[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thoughtpolice/eris/master/COPYING][COPYING]] for precise terms of copyright and redistribution.