I am still looking for a dead simple webserver that can serve files, do CGI and reverse proxy.
I have been using lighttpd for much of this. It's configuration is extremely simple although it has some quirks. It also has a few problems like not always correctly logging errors related to CGI, and not being able to proxy to a backend over SSL.
I tried caddy because of its simple configuration syntax and plugin support.
For caddy the sample webpage alone threw me off. It includes a bunch of CSS, custom fonts, and for whatever reason it has tilted text.
I'd like a test webpage to fit on my terminal screen when I SSH to it. Or at least not require a modern browser to render.
Anyway I just don't think Caddy fits my usecase. Are there no dead simple, lightweight alternatives to nginx and apache that actually work?
> I'd like a test webpage to fit on my terminal screen when I SSH to it. Or at least not require a modern browser to render.
It sounds like it may be worth wading into it a little more if this is what threw you off. Or is there some other reason Caddy doesn't fit your use case?
It has batteries included, so it'll have some things that are a little heavy handed or confusing. On balance I appreciate how simple it is for a user at the end of the day.
I might give Caddy another go. I just felt like Caddy tried to be a bit more "modern" for my needs, I only need to execute simple CGI scripts and forward requests after all. And most "webpages" of mine are plain HTML.
Or the CLI that I dont't see myself use much I just start/stop jobs with systemd anyway.
The builtin ACME support I could maybe use but I already have some beautifully handcrafted cron jobs for renewing my certs :) I even managed to more or less hack ACME support into lighttpd using its config syntax.
Caddy actually used to have a very minimal test page, I think they changed it with v2.
I really though lighttpd was perfect for me, very simple unix-like daemon that just requires a config file to run. I wish lighttpd v2 was still in development.
In any case I will probably give Caddy another go and otherwise switch back to nginx. Lighttpd has been giving me too much problems in production, like not correctly logging CGI errors, and crashing when the configuration mentions a hostname that cannot be resolved. Or even when testing simple CGI setups, getting errors to show in stdout requires setting /proc/fd/2 as the error log file...
I have been using lighttpd for much of this. It's configuration is extremely simple although it has some quirks. It also has a few problems like not always correctly logging errors related to CGI, and not being able to proxy to a backend over SSL.
I tried caddy because of its simple configuration syntax and plugin support.
For caddy the sample webpage alone threw me off. It includes a bunch of CSS, custom fonts, and for whatever reason it has tilted text.
I'd like a test webpage to fit on my terminal screen when I SSH to it. Or at least not require a modern browser to render.
Anyway I just don't think Caddy fits my usecase. Are there no dead simple, lightweight alternatives to nginx and apache that actually work?