Can RR compress (gzip) static content?

[nitrogenium]

For example static content such as js or css can be compressed (gzip).

It is a good idea to have text-based resources served with compression (gzip, deflate or brotli) to minimize total network bytes.

Thank you

[rustatian]

Hey @nitrogenium. Sure, just place gzip middleware before the static like this:

http:
    address: xxxx
    middleware: ["static", "gzip" ] <----------- Request comes from here

[rustatian]

Also, you may use the fileserver plugin, which supports even more features for the static files serving: https://github.com/roadrunner-server/fileserver

[nitrogenium]

Thank you for your reply.

Before writing the question, I read the documentation, tried to figure it out myself, did a series of tests. No success.

Middleware: ["static", "gzip" ] - It works. But only for content which worker has generated.

But for static content it doesn't work.

My config:

version: "2.7"
rpc:
  listen: 'tcp://127.0.0.1:6001'
server:
  command: "php ./vendor/bin/rr-worker start --relay-dsn unix:///var/run/rr/rr-relay.sock"
  relay: "unix:///var/run/rr/rr-relay.sock"
  relay_timeout: 60s
logs:
  mode: production
  level: warning
  encoding: json
http:
  address: '0.0.0.0:8080'
  max_request_size: 256
  middleware: ["static", "headers", "gzip"]

  uploads:
    dir: /tmp
    forbid: [".php", ".exe", ".bat", ".sh"]
  headers:
    response:
      X-Powered-By: RoadRunner
  static:
    dir: /app/public
    forbid: [".htaccess", ".php"]
    
    response:
      X-Powered-By: RoadRunner
  pool:
    num_workers: 6
    max_jobs: 128
    allocate_timeout: 10s
    destroy_timeout: 10s
    supervisor:
      max_worker_memory: 256
      exec_ttl: 60s
  ssl:
    address: '0.0.0.0:8443'
    redirect: false
    cert: /etc/ssl/certs/selfsigned.crt
    key: /etc/ssl/private/selfsigned.key
  http2:
    h2c: false
    max_concurrent_streams: 128
status:
  address: '127.0.0.1:8082'
  unavailable_status_code: 503
endure:
  log_level: error

Request URL: http://127.0.0.1:8080/
Request Method: GET
Status Code: 200 OK
Remote Address: 127.0.0.1:8080
Referrer Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Cache-Control: no-cache, private
Content-Encoding: gzip

---

But:

Request URL: http://127.0.0.1:8080/css/frontend.css
Request Method: GET
Status Code: 200 OK
Remote Address: 127.0.0.1:8080
Referrer Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 90841
Content-Type: text/css; charset=utf-8
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 11:11:44 GMT
Last-Modified: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:23:56 GMT
X-Powered-By: RoadRunner

---

I've tried everything I can.
If you have any ideas, I would be very grateful.

[rustatian]

Hm... Might be you're right, let me check that. You may use the fileserver plugin then while I'm checking, it uses compression for sure.

[rustatian]

I'll convert this discussion to the issue to not miss it.

[rustatian]

fixed by: roadrunner-server/http@26882a1

[nitrogenium]

Thank you!

By the way, does the gzip mechanism use any memory сache, or it recompress files for each request?

[rustatian]

You are welcome 🤝
No, there is no cache for the static gzipped files. It works on the fly. If you want to use the cached gzipped responses, please, use the fileserver plugin.

[nitrogenium]

Strange. It turns out using gzip for static content is expensive. Compressing the same files over and over again is a pain for the CPU.
This functionality is fundamental, right? Can this plugin be integrated in RR? That would be incredibly cool.

And is there any instruction how to connect fileserver plugin to RR? Does RR need to be recompiled?

[rustatian]

This is not a basic feature. fileserver plugin is already included in RR. All you need to do is to remove the static middleware and add fileserver configuration.
Also note, that the RR is not an nginx, caddy, etc replacement. However, it provides some basic webserver features (like response gzipping), but this is not the main RR target. RR main target is to effectively handle requests from the user and carry about system processes with the PHP scripts inside. All other functionality, even advanced webserver features can be added as Go plugins.