wallmob / skipper

Skipper is an HTTP router acting as a reverse proxy with support for custom route definitions

Skipper

Skipper is an HTTP router built on top of a reverse proxy with the ability to modifying requests and responses with filters. You can use it out of the box or add your own custom filters and predicates.

What Skipper Does

• identifies routes based on the requests' properties, such as path, method, host and headers
• routes each request to the configured server endpoint
• allows modification of requests and responds with filters that are independently configured for each route
• optionally acts as a final endpoint (shunt)
• updates the routing rules without restarting, while supporting multiple types of data sources — including etcd, Innkeeper and static files

Skipper provides a default executable command with a few built-in filters, however, its primary use case is to be extended with custom filters, predicates or data sources. See more in the Documentation

Inspiration

Skipper's design is largely inspired by Vulcand.

Getting Started

Prerequisites/Requirements

In order to build and run Skipper, only the latest version of Go needs to be installed.

Skipper can use Innkeeper or Etcd as data sources for routes. See more details in the Documentation.

Installation

Skipper is 'go get' compatible. If needed, create a Go workspace first:

mkdir ws
cd ws
export GOPATH=$(pwd)
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin

Get the Skipper packages:

go get github.com/zalando/skipper/...

Running

Create a file with a route:

echo 'hello: Path("/hello") -> "https://www.example.org"' > example.eskip

Optionally, verify the file's syntax:

eskip check example.eskip

Start Skipper and make an HTTP request:

skipper -routes-file example.eskip &
curl localhost:9090/hello

Working with the code

Getting the code with the test dependencies (-t switch):

go get -t github.com/zalando/skipper/...

Build all packages:

cd src/github.com/zalando/skipper
go install ./...

Test all packages:

go test ./...

Documentation

Skipper's godoc page includes detailed information on these topics:

• The Routing Mechanism
• Matching Requests
• Filters - Augmenting Requests
• Service Backends
• Route Definitions
• Data Sources
• Extending It with Customized Predicates, Filters, and Builds
• Proxy Packages
• Logging and Metrics
• Performance Considerations