Caddy is a lightweight, general-purpose web server for Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Android. It is a capable alternative to other popular and easy to use web servers. (@caddyserver on Twitter)
The most notable features are HTTP/2, Let's Encrypt support, Virtual Hosts, TLS + SNI, and easy configuration with a Caddyfile. In development, you usually put one Caddyfile with each site. In production, Caddy serves HTTPS by default and manages all cryptographic assets for you.
Caddy binaries have no dependencies and are available for nearly every platform.
The website has full documentation but this will get you started in about 30 seconds:
Place a file named "Caddyfile" with your site. Paste this into it and save:
localhost
gzip
browse
ext .html
websocket /echo cat
log ../access.log
header /api Access-Control-Allow-Origin *
Run caddy from that directory, and it will automatically use that Caddyfile to
configure itself.
That simple file enables compression, allows directory browsing (for folders
without an index file), serves clean URLs, hosts a WebSocket echo server at
/echo, logs requests to access.log, and adds the coveted
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header for all responses from some API.
Wow! Caddy can do a lot with just a few lines.
You can run multiple sites from the same Caddyfile, too:
site1.com {
# ...
}
site2.com, sub.site2.com {
# ...
}
Note that all these sites will automatically be served over HTTPS using Let's Encrypt as the CA. Caddy will manage the certificates (including renewals) for you. You don't even have to think about it.
For more documentation, please view the website. You may also be interested in the [developer guide] (https://github.com/mholt/caddy/wiki) on this project's GitHub wiki.
Note: You will need Go 1.4 or a later version.
$ go get github.com/mholt/caddycdinto your website's directory- Run
caddy(assumes$GOPATH/binis in your$PATH)
If you're tinkering, you can also use go run main.go.
By default, Caddy serves the current directory at localhost:2015. You can place a Caddyfile to configure Caddy for serving your site.
Caddy accepts some flags from the command line. Run caddy -h to view the help
for flags. You can also pipe a Caddyfile into the caddy command.
Running as root: We advise against this; use setcap instead, like so:
setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep ./caddy This will allow you to listen on
ports < 1024 like 80 and 443.
Caddy is available as a Docker container from any of these sources:
Although Caddy's binaries are completely static, Caddy relies on some excellent libraries. Godoc.org shows the packages that each Caddy package imports.
Join our dev chat on Gitter to chat with other Caddy developers! (Dev chat only; try our support room for help or general for anything else.)
This project would not be what it is without your help. Please see the contributing guidelines if you haven't already.
Thanks for making Caddy -- and the Web -- better!
Special thanks to
Caddy was born out of the need for a "batteries-included" web server that runs anywhere and doesn't have to take its configuration with it. Caddy took inspiration from spark, nginx, lighttpd, Websocketd and Vagrant, which provides a pleasant mixture of features from each of them.
Twitter: @mholt6