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The FARSIDE_NO_ROUTER variable wasn't terribly useful after refactoring the app to include the update routine internally (rather than available externally as an elixir script). Now the only supported environment variable is FARSIDE_TEST, which is still useful for tests and quick validation of functionality.
81 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
81 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
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[](https://github.com/benbusby/farside/releases)
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[](http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
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[](https://github.com/benbusby/privacy-revolver/actions/workflows/elixir.yml)
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A redirecting service for FOSS alternative frontends.
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[Farside](https://farside.link) provides links that automatically redirect to
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working instances of privacy-oriented alternative frontends, such as Nitter,
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Libreddit, etc. This allows for users to have more reliable access to the
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available public instances for a particular service, while also helping to
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distribute traffic more evenly across all instances and avoid performance
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bottlenecks and rate-limiting.
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## Demo
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| Service | Page | Farside Link |
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| -- | -- | -- |
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| [Libreddit](https://github.com/spikecodes/libreddit) | /r/popular | https://farside.link/libreddit/r/popular
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| [Nitter](https://github.com/zedeus/nitter) | User Profile | https://farside.link/nitter/josevalim
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| [Invidious](https://github.com/iv-org/invidious) | Home Page | https://farside.link/invidious
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| [Bibliogram](https://sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram/) | User Profile | https://farside.link/bibliogram/u/kbdfans
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| [Whoogle](https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search) | Search "Elixir" | https://farside.link/whoogle/search?q=elixir
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| [Searx](https://github.com/searx/searx) | Search "Redis" | https://farside.link/searx/search?q=redis
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## How It Works
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The app runs with an internally scheduled cron task that queries all instances
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for services defined in [services.json](services.json) every 5 minutes. For
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each instance, as long as the instance takes <5 seconds to respond and returns
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a 200 status code, the instance is added to a list of available instances for
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that particular service. If not, it is discarded until the next update period.
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Farside's routing is very minimal, with only the following routes:
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- `/`
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- The app home page, displaying all live instances for every service
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- `/ping`
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- A passthrough "ping" to redis to ensure both app and redis are working
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- `/:service/*glob`
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- The main endpoint for redirecting a user to a working instance of a
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particular service with the specified path
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- Ex: `/libreddit/r/popular` would navigate to `<libreddit instance
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URL>/r/popular`
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- Note that a path is not required. `/libreddit` for example will still
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redirect the user to a working libreddit instance
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When a service is requested with the `/:service/...` endpoint, Farside requests
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the list of working instances from Redis and returns a random one from the list
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and adds that instance as a new entry in Redis to remove from subsequent
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requests for that service. For example:
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A user navigates to `/nitter` and is redirected to `nitter.net`. The next user
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to request `/nitter` will be guaranteed to not be directed to `nitter.net`, and
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will instead be redirected to a separate (random) working instance. That
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instance will now take the place of `nitter.net` as the "reserved" instance, and
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`nitter.net` will be returned to the list of available Nitter instances.
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This "reserving" of previously chosen instances is performed in an attempt to
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ensure better distribution of traffic to available instances for each service.
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Farside also has built-in IP ratelimiting for all requests, enforcing only one
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request per second per IP.
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## Development
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- Install [redis](https://redis.io)
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- Install [elixir](https://elixir-lang.org/install.html)
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- Start redis: `redis-server /usr/local/etc/redis.conf`
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- Install dependencies: `mix deps.get`
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- Initialize redis contents: `mix run -e Farside.Instances.sync`
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- Run Farside: `mix run --no-halt`
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- Uses localhost:4001
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### Environment Variables
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| Name | Purpose |
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| -- | -- |
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| FARSIDE_TEST | If enabled, bypasses the instance availability check and adds all instances to the pool. |
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