kepler

a simple gemini server

a brief note about gemini

gemini is like the web, but smaller. it's designed to be a much smaller specification and therefore much easier to implement and maintain.

for more info, check out this page

how to use kepler

kepler uses INI for config. to start kepler, run kepler path/to/config/file. all paths in the config are relative to the folder containing the config file. an example setup is included in this repository. values MUST NOT be enclosed with quotes.

list of keys:

• hostname: should be set to the hostname of the server. this is used to validate request URIs. defaults to localhost
• private_key_file: the path to the private key file. the file should be PEM encoded. defaults to key.pem
• cert_chain_file: the path to the TLS certificate. again, the file should be PEM encoded. defaults to cert.pem
• content_root: the folder to use when serving a static file. defaults to content
• index: the file to serve when a request path terminates at a folder. defaults to index.gmi
• port: the port to use. this should never really need changing. defaults to 1965
• redirects_file: the path to the redirects table file. if not present, no redirects will be loaded.
• redirects_ttl: the amount of time (in seconds) to wait before refreshing the redirects table from the disk. defaults to 1800, equal to 30 minutes

redirects

kepler supports redirections, and can dynamically update redirects without needing to restart. redirects are specified in a separate INI file, which is pointed to by the redirects_file key. this file is structured a little oddly because gemini redirects can be permanent or temporary. an example redirect might be

[test_redirect]
destination = gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space
permanent = true

any request for that path will be redirected to destination, with the permanence of the redirect being determined by permanent. if permanent is not present or the value does not equal true or false, the redirect will be assumed to be temporary. paths do not have a starting or ending slash.

the redirect table will be reloaded from disk on the first incoming request after N seconds have passed since the last reload, where N is the value of redirects_ttl.