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0 pointsdingnuts2y ago0 comments

I keep a Caddy server around and the config format is actually much, much nicer than nginx's in my experience. The main problem with it is that everybody provides example configurations in the nginx config format, so I have to read them, understand them, and translate them.

This works for me because I already knew a fair bit about nginx configuration before picking up Caddy but it really kills me to see just how many projects don't even bother to explain the nginx config they provide.

An example of this is Mattermost, which requires WebSockets and a few other config tweaks when running behind a reverse proxy. How does Mattermost document this? With an example nginx config! Want to use a different reverse proxy? Well, I hope you know how to read nginx configuration because there's no English description of what the example configuration does.

Mastodon is another project that has committed this sin. I'm sure the list is never-ending.

0 comments

mholt2y ago

> The main problem with it is that everybody provides example configurations in the nginx config format, so I have to read them, understand them, and translate them.

This is so real. I call it "doc-lock" or documentation lock-in. I don't really know a good scalable way to solve this faster than the natural passage of time and growth of the Caddy project.

reactordev2y ago

LLMs baby! Input nginx config, output caddy config. Input nginx docs, output caddy docs. Someone get on this and go to YC.

bklyn112012y ago

You're absolutely right. I'm going to do this today.

It's clear from this thread that a) Nginx open source will not proceed at its previous pace, b) the forks are for Russia and not for western companies, and c) Caddy seems like absolutely the most sane and responsive place to move.

francislavoie2y ago

LLMs do a horrendous job with Caddy config as it stands. It doesn't know how to differentiate Caddy v0/1 config from v2 config, so it hallucinates all kinds of completely invalid config. We've seen an uptick of people coming for support on the forums with configs that don't make any sense.

eropple2y ago

For just blasting a config out, I'm sure there are tons of problems. But (and I have not been to your forums, because...the project just works for me, it's great!) I've had a lot of success having GPT4 do the first-pass translation from nginx to Caddy. It's not perfect, but I do also know how to write a Caddyfile myself, I'm just getting myself out of the line-by-line business.

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CoolCold2y ago

> This is so real. I call it "doc-lock" or documentation lock-in. I don't really know a good scalable way to solve this faster than the natural passage of time and growth of the Caddy project.

I think you are totally right here - gaining critical mass over the time for battle tested solution. On the other hand, the authors [who prefers Caddy] of docs will likely abandon providing Nginx configs sample and someone else will complain on that on HN.

"Battle tested" can be seen differently of course, but in my opinion, things like the next one,

> IMO most users do require the newer versions because we made critical changes to how key things work and perform. I cannot in good faith recommend running anything but the latest release.

from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36055554 , by someone working at Caddy doesn't help. May be in their bubble (can I say your bubble as you are from Caddy as well?) noone really cares on LTS stuff and just use "image: caddy:latest" and everything is in containers managed by dev teams - just my projection on why it may be so.

CoolCold2y ago

How would you imagine this in practice? Should one to provide instructions how to unwrap docker images/dockerfiles project uses (quite many do lean on Docker/Containers nowadays and not regular system setup) to for example setup the same on FreeBSD Jails? Where to stop here?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

mholt2y ago

> The main problem with it is that everybody provides example configurations in the nginx config format, so I have to read them, understand them, and translate them.

This is so real. I call it "doc-lock" or documentation lock-in. I don't really know a good scalable way to solve this faster than the natural passage of time and growth of the Caddy project.

reactordev2y ago

LLMs baby! Input nginx config, output caddy config. Input nginx docs, output caddy docs. Someone get on this and go to YC.

bklyn112012y ago

You're absolutely right. I'm going to do this today.

francislavoie2y ago

eropple2y ago

1 more reply

CoolCold2y ago

> This is so real. I call it "doc-lock" or documentation lock-in. I don't really know a good scalable way to solve this faster than the natural passage of time and growth of the Caddy project.

"Battle tested" can be seen differently of course, but in my opinion, things like the next one,

> IMO most users do require the newer versions because we made critical changes to how key things work and perform. I cannot in good faith recommend running anything but the latest release.

CoolCold2y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse