[dartos]

I run many server programs on my homelab.

Each is running on a different port, but I want them all accessible publicly from different URLs and I only want to expose port 443 to the internet.

I also want to have TLS autorefresh for each domain.

I need a reverse proxy for the former and caddy does both.

If you’re running a single server and that server does TLS termination then you don’t really need a reverse proxy.

[com2kid]

Every page off of my (static HTML file!) home page[1] is actually a distinct microservice sitting behind a reverse proxy. I can throw some new experiment together, built it with whatever tooling I want, give it a port number, and let nginx route to it.

It removes a lot of friction from "I wonder if making this service is a good idea?" and because I am self hosting I am not tying myself down to any of the "all in one" hosting platforms.

[1] https://www.generativestorytelling.ai/

[dartos]

Microservice maximalism.

[tnolet]

e.g. Virtual hosting as we called it in the Apache days

[deadlocked]

Virtual hosting is only similar in that it allows you to serve content based on the requested FQDN (or, indeed, destination port of the request).

[MayeulC]

You forgot the original need: share a single IPv4 among different services.

If going IPv6-only, the need for a reverse proxy is seriously lowered. You could spin multiple servers up (even on different machines), listening to 443. Have each service handle its certificate renewal, etc.

[anamexis]

> You forgot the original need: share a single IPv4 among different services.

That "original need" is exactly what GP is talking about.

[MayeulC]

Right, indirectly (single port). I was spelling it out.