twind is a simple daemon serving static files over the gemini protocol. It is intended to have as few knobs as possible and has no support for a configuration file. twind is named after the latin word for gemini - twins.
twind is known to run on OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Linux and currently supports
- Serving static gemini files
- Virtual hosts
- MIME handling
- IPv4 and IPv6 support
It doesn't support CGI handling and probably never will. There are more advanced gemini servers out there if you look for fancy stuff.
twind is written in plain C and you need to have the following software installed:
- A C compiler (tested with clang >= 11 and GCC >= 9)
- LibreSSL or OpenSSL
- POSIX compatible libc with pthreads support
- make (both BSD and GNU make will work)
twind needs a dedicated user called '_twind' and directory to run. The Makefile contains a command to create the user. Note that you shall not change the user's name and the directory twind needs! By default, the user ID for _twind is set to 4000. If you need another user ID, change the UID variable in the Makefile.
$ make
# make install
# make user
twind expects to find a X509 certificate and a corresponding private key under the following locations (which cannot be changed):
- /etc/twind/twind.cert.pem
- /etc/twind/twind.key.pem
Either copy your existing keys to these locations or generate a new key and certificate by using the Makefile. Note that the command overwrites any existing key without warning! To generate both key and certificate use the following command and provide the hostname via the HN variable. If you don't provide the hostname the command will fail!
# make setuptls HN=example.com
twind has support for virtual hosts. If your gemini server is called
example.com you have to create a dedicated sub directory under /var/twind:
# cd /var/twind
# mkdir example.com
# <copy files into the example.com directory>
In case your server is also reachable via gemini.example.com and you want to serve the same content as on example.com you can create a symlink. In case you want to serve different content, you have to create a dedicated sub directory.
twind needs root permissions to start and will drop its privileges as soon as
possible. It will also chroot to /var/twind.
# twind
For debugging purposes, you can start twind with -df option so that debugging and running in the foreground is enabled.
Please send feedback, patches by email to git()xosc.org. Send git formatted patches, see https://git-send-email.io/ for more information.