Version 3
2023-01-15
The purpose of this app is to provide a template for developing APIs using multiple languages. It serves as a resource for syntax, workarounds, and best practices.
Specifically, the app is a web-based tool for managing a Raspberry Pi dedicated to downloading Torrents. It includes features such as:
- displaying system metrics (e.g. uptime, used storage, VPN status),
- starting and stopping the VPN connection and Transmission (Torrent application) daemon,
- rebooting and shutting down the system,
- and listing, downloading, and deleting files being downloaded or completed.
This code is a laboratory (PoC), not intended to be exposed directly to the public Internet or be used in production environment.
Read, customize, learn, and use it at your own risk because it has security risks:
- The code uses the modules to execute shell commands,
- It has multiple unauthenticated endpoints,
- By design, it binds on all interfaces,
- And there is no inputs validation/sanitization.
It is recommended to clone this repo then rename the directory to /App:
git clone [email protected]:davift/API.git
sudo mv API /App
This application is designed to run as a system service.
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/simpleapi.service
Paste the following content:
[Unit]
Description=Python API on port 80
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/App
Environment="DYNAMIC_DNS=your-domain-here.duckdns.org"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /App/api.py
Restart=on-abort
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
The service configuration above executes the Python version of the application.
To execute the NodeJS version install runtime by issuing:
sudo apt install nodejs -y
node -v
And replace the following file on the service configuration file:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /App/api.js
For GOlang, install the compiler:
sudo apt install golang
go --version
And replace the following file on the service configuration file:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/go run /App/api.go
For Ruby, install:
sudo apt install ruby -y
ruby -v
And replace the following file on the service configuration file:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ruby /App/api.rb
It assumes the /Torrent directory is where the Transmission is configured to place the downloaded files. It can be easily changed in the code.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start simpleapi.service
sudo systemctl enable simpleapi.service
Other commands such as restart or stop can be commanded as follows:
sudo systemctl restart simpleapi.service
sudo systemctl stop simpleapi.service
Python scripts can eventually be compiled:
python -m py_compile api.py
- Golang is meant for multi-thread processing and is capable of hadle as much parallel connections as computing resources are available in the server. This is the best oiption for production application.
- The Python and Ruby versions in this repo work similarly to the Golang, limited only by the server's resources.
- NoseJS in another hand, by default is capable of hadling 5-6 parallel connections. It requires some tweaks to spin up multiple workers that would handle a single connection per node using the modules "cluster" or "pm2". Keep in mind, the NodeJS version implementation in this repo uses execSync (synchronous), not exec (asynchronous).
var cluster = require('cluster');
var http = require('http');
if (cluster.isMaster) {
for (var i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
cluster.fork();
}
} else {
var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200);
res.end('Hello World\n');
});
server.listen(80);
}
pm2 start app.js -i 100
Note: manually running this application does not attach its process to the session, and it works as an orchestrator engine that also provides features such as automatic application restart on crash, automatic application scaling, and monitoring of application performance.