Go WebSockify

RFC 6455 compliant TCP to WebSocket proxy.

Go WebSockify is a pure Go implementation of novnc/websockify TCP to WebSocket proxy with improved connection handling. Runs on Linux, Windows and MacOS.

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Build from source
• Features
• Use Cases
• Usage
• Development
  • Dependencies
  • Development environment
  • Control plane
  • Docker
  • Screenshots
• Prometheus Metrics
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License

Installation

Build from source

$ git clone https://github.com/msquee/go-websockify.git
$ cd go-websockify
$ make

Features

• Runs in user space.
• Proxy any TCP connection to a WebSocket connection.
• go-websockify can be ran as a daemon by passing the command line flag -D or --daemon to run in the background.

Use Cases

The most common use case for go-websockify is alongside novnc to enable fast virtual desktop experiences in the browser.

Usage

$ go-websockify --help
Starts a TCP to WebSocket proxy.

Usage:
  go-websockify [flags]

Flags:
      --bind-addr string     bind address (default "0.0.0.0:8080")
      --buffer int           buffer size (default 65536)
  -D, --daemon               run as daemon
      --echo                 sidecar echo server
  -h, --help                 help for go-websockify
      --path string          url path clients connect to (default "/websockify")
      --remote-addr string   remote address (default "127.0.0.1:1984")
  -v, --version              print version

Development

Dependencies

• Go 1.14
• Docker
• Yarn
• Modd

Development environment

Modd is used for a seamless development experience and once installed simply run the command modd in the root directory of this project to start the development environment.

Control plane

You don't need to do this if you use the provided Docker environment.

go-websockify has a simple JavaScript based frontend control plane for development and is available at http://127.0.0.1:1234

To start the control plane run:

$ cd client
$ yarn install
$ yarn dev

For the frontend to automatically connect to Go WebSockify you have to pass --echo as a command line flag to go-websockify. This is done for you if you're using Docker or Modd.

Docker

A batteries included Docker environment is included with this repository to show off Go WebSockify in a psuedo production environment.

Docker environment features:

• Prometheus
• Grafana with preconfigured dashboard
• Go WebSockify and Control Plane
• TCP Echo Server

IP	Description
http://127.0.0.1:1234	Control Plane
http://127.0.0.1:8080	Go WebSockify
http://127.0.0.1:1984	TCP Echo Server
http://127.0.0.1:3000	Grafana
http://127.0.0.1:9090	Prometheus

To start the Docker environment run:

$ docker-compose up

Grafana login is admin/admin

Screenshots

The control plane is not included with binary distributions.

Prometheus Metrics

Go WebSockify exports the following Prometheus metrics at /metrics:

• go_websockify_websocket_bytes_tx_total
• go_websockify_websocket_bytes_rx_total
• go_websockify_websocket_connections_active
• go_websockify_tcp_connections_active

Roadmap

• Support TLS on WebSocket connections.
• Support authenticating WebSocket connections through a plugin system (https://github.com/traefik/yaegi).
• Support for proxying UNIX sockets to WebSockets.
• Support backend TCP connection reuse.
• Wrapping any program with the LD_PRELOAD trick to catch bind() system calls. See: https://jvns.ca/blog/2014/11/27/ld-preload-is-super-fun-and-easy/.

Contributing

Both pull requests and issues are welcome on GitHub. No set rules for contributing, just keep it clean.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.