Caddy Server on Alpine Linux

Simple Development Proxy for productive full-stack development.

This is a Docker image for Caddy web server. This image runs with a base of Alpine-Linux making it extremely small, secure and fast.

Requirements

• Docker

Getting Started

1. Setup ".env" file

Create an .env file in the root directory of your project. Add environment-specific variables on new lines in the form of NAME=VALUE. For example:

API_ROOT_1=https://your-api
API_ROOT_2=https://your-other-api

That's it.

Docker will pick up the keys and values you defined in your .env file.

Should I commit my ".env" file?

No. We strongly recommend against committing your .env file to version control. It should only include environment-specific values such as database passwords or API keys.

2. Run start script

Run the included start.sh script to launch the Caddy container.

$ ./start.sh

Point your browser to http://localhost:3000 or http://localhost:4000

Usage

This image works with two defaults

1. A default Caddyfile
2. A default location inside the container for static files (optional): /var/www/html

In order to use this image, we recommend running it with a volume connecting your static files to the root location of the docker file:

$ docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -p 4000:4000 -v $(pwd)/public:/var/www/html alpine-caddy

The server will be available at http://your.docker.machine.ip

The benefits of building an image with a overrideable Caddyfile are that you can include your own by including another volume.

For writing a custom Caddyfile please read this.

Default Caddyfile

The image contains a default Caddyfile. It acts as a simple reverse proxy

localhost:3000 {
  gzip
  log stdout
  errors stdout
  cors
  root /var/www/html
  proxy /api {$API_ROOT_1} {
    header_upstream Accept-Encoding {>Accept-Encoding}
  }
}

localhost:4000 {
  gzip
  log stdout
  errors stdout
  cors
  root /var/www/html
  proxy /api {$API_ROOT_2} {
    header_upstream Accept-Encoding {>Accept-Encoding}
  }
}

It’s possible to use environment variables in your shell to populate values inside a Caddyfile:

• API_ROOT_1 and API_ROOT_2 are substituted with values configured in the .env file.

Volumes

Alpine-Caddy has three locations where volumes can be linked to.

Static Files

In order to serve static content, alpine-caddy needs to be able to access your static files from inside of the container. To do this, link the directory of your static files with /var/www/html inside of the container.

For docker-compose.yml files, under the volumes declaration, include:

-  ./public:/var/www/html

or

$ docker run -v $(pwd)/public:/var/www/html

Custom Caddyfile

To upload a custom Caddyfile, link your Caddyfile to the directory /etc/Caddyfile in the container. For docker-compose.yml files, under the volumes declaration, include:

-  ./Caddyfile:/etc/Caddyfile

or

$ docker run -v $(pwd)/Caddyfile:/etc/Caddyfile alpine-caddy