Introduction
Across our many tutorials we have looked at hundreds of different technologies. In almost every article, we’ve based our work on Apache or NGINX based servers.
However, there is a new web server which is gaining popularity due to its overall simplicity… welcome to the world of Caddy web server! This web server is entirely written in Go, and was first released in 2015. Caddy configuration is based on
, and, as we will see in an example, these files are incredibly easy to write and manage.
What’s really got us excited, however, is the fact that it integrates Let’s Encrypt by default and without any manual configuration!
Caddy Features
- Automatic HTTPS on by default, via Let’s Encrypt
- HTTP/2 by default
- Static files in the current working directory
- All server types, directives, DNS providers, and other features are just plugins
- Can be used like a library in other Go programs
- Configurable to run system commands at startup and shutdown
- Caddy is a single executable file with no dependencies at all except from the kernel
Impressive right? And this is not even an exhaustive list of the features available!
Now that you’re excited. Let’s take a look at how to install and use Caddy web browser on an Ubuntu 16.04 server.
Install Caddy Web Server
Caddy provides an installation script which downloads and installs Caddy binaries. As anticipated in the introduction, this web server has no dependencies.
Execute the following command:
$ curl https://getcaddy.com | bash
During the installation, the script will prompt for your password in order to gain administrative privileges.
The output will be:
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 5593 100 5593 0 0 3696 0 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 3696 Downloading Caddy for linux/amd64... https://caddyserver.com/download/linux/amd64?plugins= Download verification OK Extracting... Putting caddy in /usr/local/bin (may require password) [sudo] password for gmolica: Caddy 0.10.6 Successfully installed
Once the script has completed it’s work, Caddy binaries will be installed and ready to use, and, as we can see,
is on the
directory.
What’s important to note is that the installation process will not create any system-wide configuration, so, this part is up to you. Luckily, the process is simple.
Configure Caddy
By default, Caddy will use the cthe directory it is being executed from as the root of the site, so, if you execute it from
, it will use this as its root. This means, of course, that with Caddy it’s really easy to work on sites locally.
To execute:
$ caddy
The terminal will show the following message:
Activating privacy features... done. http://:2015 WARNING: File descriptor limit 1024 is too low for production servers. At least 8192 is recommended. Fix with "ulimit -n 8192".
Right now, we can ignore the WARNING and note that
runs on
, on port 2015.
Going with a web browser to
could redirect to a
error page. This is due to the fact that the directory Caddy is using as its root does not contain a web site. Before moving on, create the required directories:
Creating Required Directories
First of all, create a directory that will contain the main
:
# mkdir /etc/caddy
Change its owner to the root user and its group to www-data:
# chown -R root:www-data /etc/caddy
Create a second directory, where Caddy will store the SSL certificates and private keys:
# mkdir /etc/ssl/caddy
Change its owner to www-data:
# chown -R www-data /etc/ssl/caddy
Change the permissions, as follows:
# chmod 0770 /etc/ssl/caddy
Next, create the directory that will contain the site,
:
# mkdir /var/www
This directory will be owned by www-data:
# chown www-data:www-data /var/www
Download the Caddy Unit File
By default, Caddy will not install itself as a systemd service, but the project provides an official unit file. Download it with the following command:
# curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mholt/caddy/master/dist/init/linux-systemd/caddy.service -o /etc/systemd/system/caddy.service
Looking at this file we will note the following lines:
; Letsencrypt-issued certificates will be written to this directory. Environment=CADDYPATH=/etc/ssl/caddy ; Always set "-root" to something safe in case it gets forgotten in the Caddyfile. ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/caddy -log stdout -agree=true -conf=/etc/caddy/Caddyfile -root=/var/tmp
This is why we set up those directories in the previous steps.
Create an empty
:
# sudo touch /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
Execute the following commands to enable Caddy to run on boot:
# systemctl daemon-reload # systemctl enable caddy
Check its status:
# systemctl status caddy ---------------------------------- â caddy.service - Caddy HTTP/2 web server Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/caddy.service; enabled; vendor preset: en Active: inactive (dead) Docs: https://caddyserver.com/docs
Allow HTTP and HTTPS Connections
Through
, allow both HTTP and HTTPS connections so that Caddy will be able to correctly serve users:
# ufw allow http # ufw allow https
Testing Caddy
Last step is to test Caddy to be sure that everything has been done correctly.
Edit Caddyfile
Previously, we created an empty
. Now, it’s time to populate it. Open with a text editor:
# $EDITOR /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
In that file, paste the content:
example.com {
root /var/www
gzip
tls gmolica@example.com
}
Note: the tls line contains the email address that will be used by Caddy to obtain SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt.
Save and close.
Start Caddy:
# systemctl start caddy
Create a Web Page
Create a web page for testing Caddy:
$ echo '<h1>Website using Caddy</h1>' | sudo tee /var/www/index.html
Use the same root that you set up in the
.
Now, with a web browser, just go to
, and you will see our test page!
Conclusion
We have seen how to install and use Caddy. Note how easy it can be to create
to customize the server behaviour! Also keep in mind that the ease of use becomes even more evident in more complex environments.
