Tiny Domain Redirector

A simple Golang web application that can be used to redirect HTTP requests for a domain (or subdomain) to another domain (or subdomain or URL). The application uses the http package in Go to create an HTTP server that receives HTTP requests and redirects the client to the specified destination URL. The application can be used to redirect domains for a variety of purposes, such as migrating a website to a new domain, redirecting a domain to a new subdomain, or redirecting a domain to a different URL.

Built as a personal project. Please review the code before using. Suggestions and contributions are welcome.

Thank you

Run as a service

• Create a Systemd service. Example below:

[Unit]
Description      = redirector

[Service]
Type             = simple
User             = root
Group            = root
ExecStart        = /path/to/this/binary
WorkingDirectory = /path/to/this/golang/project
Restart          = always
RestartSec       = 5s

[Install]
WantedBy         = multi-user.target

• Create the file in /lib/systemd/system/ (usually)

• Save the service file as redirector.service

• Enable the service: sudo systemctl enable redirector.service

• Start the service: sudo systemctl start redirector.service

• Check the status of the service: sudo systemctl status redirector.service

Setup as nginx reverse proxy (example)

Filename: /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/contact.ramit.io.conf

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name contact.ramit.io;
    client_max_body_size 128k;

    # logging
    access_log /var/log/nginx/redirector.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/redirector.error.log warn;

    # reverse proxy
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9990;
    }
    
    # ...
}

Test in local

• Modify the code, and run the app (I prefer using air)
• Use curl to verify if the redirect works. Example: curl -skIXGET --connect-to ::localhost:9990 contact.ramit.io

Build and deploy

• Use the build.sh script to generate a binary executable.
• Deploy the generated binary to your server (build a fancy pipeline or use rsync).
• Note: I have used gum to print cool messages; if you do not have gum installed, you will get errors. Please make modifications to the build.sh script as required.
• Once deployed, please reload the redirector service (sudo systemctl restart redirector.service)

Why Golang?

Golang is a better choice to build a redirector service than Node.js or PHP for the following reasons:

• Performance: Golang is a compiled language, which means that it is converted to machine code before it is executed. This makes Golang programs much faster than programs written in interpreted languages like Node.js and PHP.
• Concurrency: Golang is designed to support concurrency very well. This means that Golang programs can handle multiple requests at the same time without any problems. This is important for a redirector service, which needs to be able to handle a large number of requests from users.
• Scalability: Golang programs are very scalable. This means that they can be easily scaled up or down to handle different levels of traffic. This is also important for a redirector service, which needs to be able to handle a large number of requests without any problems.

Motivation

Read more here.