mcgunn/gostatic repository overview

⁠goStatic

Fork of the https://github.com/PierreZ/goStatic⁠ with added features:

• custom app status in JSON format

A really small static web server for Docker

⁠The goal

My goal is to create to smallest docker container for my web static files. The advantage of Go is that you can generate a fully static binary, so that you don't need anything else.

⁠Wait, I've been using old versions of GoStatic and things have changed!

Yeah, decided to drop support of unsecured HTTPS. Two-years ago, when I started GoStatic, there was no automatic HTTPS available. Nowadays, thanks to Let's Encrypt, it's really easy to do so. If you need HTTPS, I recommend caddy⁠.

⁠Features

• A fully static web server in 6MB
• No framework
• Web server build for Docker
• Can generate certificate on his own
• Light container
• More security than official images (see below)
• Structured logging with basic stats

⁠Why?

Because the official Golang image is wayyyy to big (around 1/2Gb as you can see below) and could be unsecure.

For me, the whole point of containers is to have a light container... Many links should provide you with additionnal info to see my point of view:

• Over 30% of Official Images in Docker Hub Contain High Priority Security Vulnerabilities⁠
• Create The Smallest Possible Docker Container⁠
• Building Docker Images for Static Go Binaries⁠
• Small Docker Images For Go Apps⁠

⁠How to use

docker run -d -p 80:8043 -v path/to/website:/srv/http --name goStatic pierrezemb/gostatic

⁠Usage

./goStatic --help
Usage of /goStatic:
  -append-header HeaderName:Value
        HTTP response header, specified as HeaderName:Value that should be added to all responses.
  -context string
        The 'context' path on which files are served, e.g. 'doc' will serve the files at 'http://localhost:<port>/doc/'
  -default-user-basic-auth string
        Define the user (default "gopher")
  -enable-basic-auth
        Enable basic auth. By default, password are randomly generated. Use --set-basic-auth to set it.
  -fallback string
        Default fallback file. Either absolute for a specific asset (/index.html), or relative to recursively resolve (index.html)
  -password-length int
        Size of the randomized password (default 16)
  -path string
        The path for the static files (default "/srv/http")
  -port int
        The listening port (default 8043)
  -set-basic-auth string
        Define the basic auth. Form must be user:password
  -status-path string
        Path to serve status JSON. Default is /status (default "/status")
  -status-start-ts
        Add start timestamp to the status
  -status-vars string
        <ENV_VAR>:<STATUS_VAR>,...

⁠Fallback

The fallback option is principally useful for single page applications (SPAs) where the browser may request a file, but where part of the path is in fact an internal route in the application, not a file on disk. goStatic supports two possible usages of this option:

1. Using an absolute path so that all not found requests resolve to the same file
2. Using a relative file, which searches up the tree for the specified file

The second case is useful if you have multiple SPAs within the one filesystem. e.g., / and /admin.