chhoto-url/README.md

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# ![Logo](resources/assets/favicon-32.png) <span style="font-size:42px">Chhoto URL</span>

# What is it?
A simple selfhosted URL shortener with no unnecessary features. Simplicity
and speed are the main foci of this project. The docker image is ~6 MB (compressed),
and it uses <5 MB of RAM under regular use.

Don't worry if you see no activity for a long time. I consider this project
to be complete, not dead. I'm unlikely to add any new features, but I will try
and fix every bug you report. I will also try to keep it updated in terms of
security vulnerabilities.

If you feel like a feature is missing, please let me know by creating an issue
using the "feature request" template.

## But why another URL shortener?
I've looked at a couple popular URL shorteners, however they either have
unnecessary features, or they didn't have all the features I wanted.

## What does the name mean?
Chhoto (ছোট, [IPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Bengali): /tʃʰoʈo/) is the Bangla word
for small. URL means, well... URL. So the name simply means Small URL.

# Features
- Shortens URLs of any length to a randomly generated link.
- (Optional) Allows you to specify the shortened URL instead of the generated
  one. (It's surprisingly missing in a surprising number of alternatives.)
- Opening the shortened URL in your browser will instantly redirect you
  to the correct long URL. (So no stupid redirecting pages.)
- Super lightweight and snappy. (The docker image is only ~6MB and RAM uasge
  stays under 5MB under normal use.)
- Counts number of hits for each short link in a privacy respecting way
  i.e. only the hit is recorded, and nothing else.
- Allows setting the URL of your website, in case you want to conveniently
  generate short links locally.
- Links are stored in an SQLite database.
- Available as a Docker container.
- Backend written in Rust using [Actix](https://actix.rs/), frontend
  written in plain HTML and vanilla JS, using [Pure CSS](https://purecss.io/)
  for styling.
- Uses very basic authentication using a provided password. It's not encrypted in transport.
  I  recommend using something like [caddy](https://caddyserver.com/) to
  encrypt the connection by SSL.
  
# Bloat that will not be implemented
- Tracking or spying of any kind. The only logs that still exist are
 errors printed to stderr and the basic logging (only warnings) provided by the
 [`env_logger`](https://crates.io/crates/env_logger) crate.
- User management. If you need a shortener for your whole organization, either
 run separate containers for everyone or use something else.
- Cookies, newsletters, "we value your privacy" popups or any of the multiple
other ways modern web shows how anti-user it is. We all hate those, and they're
not needed here.
- Paywalls or messages begging for donations. If you want to support me (for
whatever reason), you can message me through GitHub issues.

# Screenshot
![Screenshot](screenshot.png)

# Usage
## Using `docker compose` (Recommended method)
There is a sample `compose.yaml` file in this repository. It contains
everything needed for a basic install. You can use it as a base, modifying
it as needed. Run it with
```
docker compose up -d
```
If you're using a custom location for the `db_url`, make sure to make that file
before running the docker image, as otherwise a directory will be created in its
place, resulting in possibly unwanted behavior.

## Building and running with docker
### `docker run` method
0. (Only if you really want to) Build the image for the default `x86_64-unknown-linux-musl` target:
```
docker build . -t chhoto-url
```
For building on `arm64` or `arm/v7`, use the following:
```
docker build . -t chhoto-url --build-arg target=<desired-target>
```
Make sure that the desired target is a `musl` one, since the docker image is built from `scratch`.
For cross-compilation, take a look at the `Makefile`. It builds and pushes for `linux/amd64`, `linux/aarch64`
and `linux/arm/v7` architectures. For any other architectures, open a discussion, and I'll try to help you out.
1. Run the image
```
docker run -p 4567:4567
    -e password="password"
    -d chhoto-url:latest
```
1.a Make the database file available to host (optional)
```
touch ./urls.sqlite
docker run -p 4567:4567 \
    -e password="password" \
    -v ./urls.sqlite:/urls.sqlite \
    -e db_url=/urls.sqlite \
    -d chhoto-url:latest
```
1.b Further, set the URL of your website (optional)
```
touch ./urls.sqlite
docker run -p 4567:4567 \
    -e password="password" \
    -v ./urls.sqlite:/urls.sqlite \
    -e db_url=/urls.sqlite \
    -e site_url="https://www.example.com" \
    -d chhoto-url:latest
```

You can also set the redirect method to Permanent 308 (default) or Temporary 307 by setting
the `redirect_method` variable to `TEMPORARY` or `PERMANENT` (it's matched exactly).

## Disable authentication
If you do not define a password environment variable when starting the docker image, authentication
will be disabled.

This if not recommended in actual use however, as it will allow anyone to create new links and delete
old ones. This might not seem like a bad idea, until you have hundreds of links
pointing to illegal content. Since there are no logs, it's impossible to prove
that those links aren't created by you.

## Notes
- It started as a fork of [this project](https://gitlab.com/draganczukp/simply-shorten).
- The list of adjectives and names used for random short url generation is a modified
  version of [this list used by docker](https://github.com/moby/moby/blob/master/pkg/namesgenerator/names-generator.go).