Name

ngx_stream_lua_module - Embed the power of Lua into Nginx stream/TCP Servers.

This module is not distributed with the Nginx source. See the installation instructions.

Table of Contents

• Name
• Status
• Synopsis
• Description
  • Directives
  • Nginx API for Lua
• TODO
• Nginx Compatibility
• Installation
• Community
  • English Mailing List
  • Chinese Mailing List
• Code Repository
• Bugs and Patches
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright and License
• See Also

Status

Experimental.

The API is still in flux and may change without notice.

Synopsis

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

stream {
    # define a TCP server listening on the port 1234:
    server {
        listen 1234;

        content_by_lua_block {
            ngx.say("Hello, Lua!")
        }
    }
}

Set up as an SSL TCP server:

stream {
    server {
        listen 4343 ssl;

        ssl_protocols       TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
        ssl_ciphers         AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:RC4-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:RC4-MD5;
        ssl_certificate     /path/to/cert.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /path/to/cert.key;
        ssl_session_cache   shared:SSL:10m;
        ssl_session_timeout 10m;

        content_by_lua_block {
            local sock = assert(ngx.req.socket(true))
            local data = sock:receive()  -- read a line from downstream
            if data == "thunder!" then
                ngx.say("flash!")  -- output data
            else
                ngx.say("boom!")
            end
            ngx.say("the end...")
        }
    }
}

Listening on a UNIX domain socket is also supported:

stream {
    server {
        listen unix:/tmp/nginx.sock;

        content_by_lua_block {
            ngx.say("What's up?")
            ngx.flush(true)  -- flush any pending output and wait
            ngx.sleep(3)  -- sleeping for 3 sec
            ngx.say("Bye bye...")
        }
    }
}

Description

This is a port of the ngx_http_lua_module to the NGINX "stream" subsystem so as to support generic stream/TCP clients in the downstream.

Lua APIs and directive names rename the same as the ngx_http_lua_module.

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Directives

The following directives are ported directly from ngx_http_lua_module. Please check the documentation of ngx_http_lua_module for more details about their usage and behavior.

• lua_code_cache
• lua_regex_cache_max_entries
• lua_package_path
• lua_package_cpath
• init_by_lua_block
• init_by_lua_file
• init_worker_by_lua_block
• init_worker_by_lua_file
• content_by_lua_block
• content_by_lua_file
• balancer_by_lua_block
• balancer_by_lua_file
• lua_shared_dict
• lua_socket_connect_timeout
• lua_socket_buffer_size
• lua_socket_pool_size
• lua_socket_keepalive_timeout
• lua_socket_log_errors
• lua_ssl_ciphers
• lua_ssl_crl
• lua_ssl_protocols
• lua_ssl_trusted_certificate
• lua_ssl_verify_depth
• lua_check_client_abort
• lua_max_pending_timers
• lua_max_running_timers

The send_timeout directive in the Nginx "http" subsystem is missing in the "stream" subsystem. So ngx_stream_lua_module uses the lua_socket_send_timeout for this purpose.

Note: the lingering close directive that used to exist in older version of stream_lua_nginx_module has been removed and can now be simulated with the newly added tcpsock:shutdown method if necessary.

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Nginx API for Lua

Many Lua API functions are ported from the ngx_http_lua_module. Check out the official manual of ngx_http_lua_module for more details on these Lua API functions.

• ngx.var.VARIABLE

This module fully supports the new variable subsystem inside the NGINX stream core. You may access any built-in variables provided by the stream core or other stream modules.

• Core constants

  ngx.OK, ngx.ERROR, and etc.

• Nginx log level constants

  ngx.ERR, ngx.WARN, and etc.

• print

• ngx.ctx

• ngx.req.socket

  Only raw request sockets are supported, for obvious reasons. The raw argument value is ignored and the raw request socket is always returned. Unlike ngx_http_lua_module, you can still call output API functions like ngx.say, ngx.print, and ngx.flush after acquiring the raw request socket via this function.

Raw request socket returned by this module will contain the following extra method:

tcpsock:shutdown

syntax: ok, err = tcpsock:shutdown("send")

context: content_by_lua*

Shuts down the write part of the request socket, prevents all further writing to the client and sends TCP FIN, while keeping the reading half open.

Currently only the "send" direction is supported. Using any parameters other than "send" will return an error.

If you called any output functions (like ngx.say) before calling this method, consider use ngx.flush(true) to make sure all busy buffers are complely flushed before shutting down the socket. If any busy buffers were detected, this method will return nil will error message "socket busy writing".

This feature is particularly useful for protocols that generates response before actually finishes consuming all incoming data. Normally Kernel will send out RST to the client when tcpsock:close is called without emptying the receiving buffer first. Calling this method will allow you to keep reading from the receiving buffer and prevents RST from being sent.

You can also use this method to simulate lingering close similar to that provided by the ngx_http_core_module for protocols that needs such behavior. Here is an example:

local LINGERING_TIME = 30 -- 30 seconds
local LINGERING_TIMEOUT = 5000 -- 5 seconds

local ok, err = sock:shutdown("send")
if not ok then
    ngx.log(ngx.ERR, "failed to shutdown: ", err)
    return
end

local deadline = ngx.time() + LINGERING_TIME

sock:settimeouts(nil, nil, LINGERING_TIMEOUT)

repeat
    local data, _, partial = sock:receive(1024)
until (not data and not partial) or ngx.time() >= deadline

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• ngx.print

• ngx.say

• ngx.log

• ngx.flush

  This call currently ignores the wait argument and always wait for all the pending output to be completely flushed out (to the system socket send buffers).

• ngx.exit

• ngx.eof

• ngx.sleep

• ngx.escape_uri

• ngx.unescape_uri

• ngx.encode_args

• ngx.decode_args

• ngx.encode_base64

• ngx.decode_base64

• ngx.crc32_short

• ngx.crc32_long

• ngx.hmac_sha1

• ngx.md5

• ngx.md5_bin

• ngx.sha1_bin

• ngx.quote_sql_str

• ngx.today

• ngx.time

• ngx.now

• ngx.update_time

• ngx.localtime

• ngx.utctime

• ngx.re.match

• ngx.re.find

• ngx.re.gmatch

• ngx.re.sub

• ngx.re.gsub

• ngx.shared.DICT

• ngx.socket.tcp

• ngx.socket.udp

• ngx.socket.connect

• ngx.get_phase

• ngx.thread.spawn

• ngx.thread.wait

• ngx.thread.kill

• ngx.on_abort

• ngx.timer.at

• ngx.timer.running_count

• ngx.timer.pending_count

• ngx.config.debug

• ngx.config.subsystem

  Always takes the Lua string value "stream" in this module.

• ngx.config.prefix

• ngx.config.nginx_version

• ngx.config.nginx_configure

• ngx.config.ngx_lua_version

• ngx.worker.exiting

• ngx.worker.pid

• ngx.worker.count

• ngx.worker.id

• coroutine.create

• coroutine.resume

• coroutine.yield

• coroutine.wrap

• coroutine.running

• coroutine.status

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TODO

• Add new directives access_by_lua_block and access_by_lua_file.
• Add new directives log_by_lua_block and log_by_lua_file.
• Add new directives balancer_by_lua_block and balancer_by_lua_file.
• Add new directives ssl_certificate_by_lua_block and ssl_certificate_by_lua_file.
• Add ngx.semaphore API.
• Add ngx_meta_lua_module to share as much code as possible between this module and ngx_http_lua_module and allow sharing of lua_shared_dict.
• Add support for lua-resty-core.
• Add lua_postpone_output to emulate the postpone_output directive.

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Nginx Compatibility

The latest version of this module is compatible with the following versions of Nginx:

• 1.13.x >= 1.13.3 (last tested: 1.13.3)

Nginx cores older than 1.13.3 (exclusive) are not tested and may or may not work. Use at your own risk!

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Installation

This module can be manually compiled into Nginx or OpenResty:

1. Install LuaJIT 2.1 or Lua 5.1 (Lua 5.2+ are not supported yet). LuaJIT can be downloaded from the the LuaJIT project website and Lua 5.1, from the Lua project website. Some distribution package managers also distribute LuaJIT and/or Lua.
2. Download the latest version of ngx_stream_lua HERE.
3. Download the latest supported version of NGINX HERE (See Nginx Compatibility) or the OpenResty bundle from HERE.

Build the source of NGINX or OpenResty with this module, like below:

wget 'http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.13.3.tar.gz'
tar -xzvf nginx-1.13.3.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.13.3/

# tell nginx's build system where to find LuaJIT 2.1:
export LUAJIT_LIB=/path/to/luajit/lib
export LUAJIT_INC=/path/to/luajit/include/luajit-2.1

# or tell where to find Lua if using Lua instead:
#export LUA_LIB=/path/to/lua/lib
#export LUA_INC=/path/to/lua/include

# Here we assume Nginx is to be installed under /opt/nginx/.
./configure --prefix=/opt/nginx \
        --with-ld-opt="-Wl,-rpath,/path/to/luajit-or-lua/lib" \
        --with-stream \
        --with-stream_ssl_module \
        --add-module=/path/to/stream-lua-nginx-module

# Build and install
make -j4
make install

You may use --without-http if you do not wish to use this module with the HTTP subsystem. ngx_stream_lua will work perfectly fine without the presense of the HTTP subsystem.

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Community

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English Mailing List

The openresty-en mailing list is for English speakers.

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Chinese Mailing List

The openresty mailing list is for Chinese speakers.

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Code Repository

The code repository of this project is hosted on github at openresty/stream-lua-nginx-module.

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Bugs and Patches

Please submit bug reports, wishlists, or patches by

1. creating a ticket on the GitHub Issue Tracker,
2. or posting to the OpenResty community.

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Acknowledgments

• We appreciate Mashape, Inc. for kindly sponsoring OpenResty Inc. to make this module compatible with Nginx core 1.13.3. In addition, they sponsored the work on making code sharing between this module and lua-nginx-module, as well as balancer_by_lua* support possible.

Copyright and License

This module is licensed under the BSD license.

Copyright (C) 2009-2017, by Yichun "agentzh" Zhang (章亦春) [email protected], OpenResty Inc.

Copyright (C) 2009-2016, by Xiaozhe Wang (chaoslawful) [email protected].

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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See Also

• ngx_http_lua_module
• ngx_stream_echo_module
• OpenResty

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