Published on November 06, 2024

Caddyserver Setup

By Taha • 4 minutes read •

Table of Contents

Caddy webserver is a modern, open-source web server with automatic HTTPS written in Go. It is designed to be easy to use and configure, making it an excellent choice for hosting websites and web applications. In this guide, we will show you how to install and configure Caddy on your server. You can download the latest version of Caddy from the official GitHub page.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

Before installing Caddy, you need to install the required packages on your server. You can install the packages with the following commands:
- For Debian/Ubuntu:
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y curl wget tar jq
```
- For CentOS/RHEL:
```
sudo yum update
sudo yum install -y curl wget tar jq
```
- For Arch Linux:
```
sudo pacman -Syyu
sudo pacman -S curl wget tar jq
```

Step 2: Download Caddy Tarball

I prefer to download Caddy as a binary because it supports adding custom Caddy extensions. If you install the latest version. You can download the latest version of Caddy with the following command.

For x86_64:

CADDY_LATEST_VERSION="$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/caddyserver/caddy/tags | jq -r '.[].name' | sort -Vr | grep -vE 'beta|prerelease' | head -n 1)"
cd $(mktemp -d)
wget -q "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/download/${CADDY_LATEST_VERSION}/caddy_${CADDY_LATEST_VERSION//v/}_linux_amd64.tar.gz"

For ARM:

CADDY_LATEST_VERSION="$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/caddyserver/caddy/tags | jq -r '.[].name' | sort -Vr | grep -vE 'beta|prerelease' | head -n 1)"
cd $(mktemp -d)
wget -q "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/download/${CADDY_LATEST_VERSION}/caddy_${CADDY_LATEST_VERSION//v/}_linux_arm64.tar.gz"

For x86_64 (if you using fish shell)

set CADDY_LATEST_VERSION (curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/caddyserver/caddy/tags | jq -r '.[].name' | sort -Vr | grep -vE 'beta|prerelease' | head -n 1)
cd (mktemp -d)
wget -q "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/download/$CADDY_LATEST_VERSION/caddy_$(string replace -a v '' $CADDY_LATEST_VERSION)_linux_amd64.tar.gz"

For ARM (if you using fish shell)

set CADDY_LATEST_VERSION (curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/caddyserver/caddy/tags | jq -r '.[].name' | sort -Vr | grep -vE 'beta|prerelease' | head -n 1)
cd (mktemp -d)
wget -q "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/download/$CADDY_LATEST_VERSION/caddy_$(string replace -a v '' $CADDY_LATEST_VERSION)_linux_arm64.tar.gz"

Step 3: Extract Caddy Tarball

In this folder, extract the downloaded tarball with the following command:
```
tar -xzf caddy_*.tar.gz
```

Step 4: Move Caddy Binary to /usr/local/bin

After extracting the tarball, move the Caddy binary to the /usr/local/bin directory and make it executable with the following commands:
```
sudo mv caddy /usr/local/bin
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/caddy
```
Note: You must restore file context for the caddy binary with the following command if you are using SELinux:
```
sudo restorecon -vR /usr/local/bin/caddy
```
You can check the caddy version with the following command:
```
caddy version
```

Step 5: Download Caddy Service Files

To run Caddy as a service, you need to create a systemd service file. You can download the service file with the following command:

sudo wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caddyserver/dist/master/init/caddy.service -O /etc/systemd/system/caddy.service
sudo wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caddyserver/dist/master/init/caddy-api.service -O /etc/systemd/system/caddy-api.service

Step 6: Change Default Binary Path in Caddy Service Files

We have installed the Caddy binary into the /usr/local/bin directory. You need to change the path in the Caddy service files to point to the correct location. Open the service files with the following command:
```
sudo sed -i 's|/usr/bin/caddy|/usr/local/bin/caddy|g' /etc/systemd/system/caddy.service
sudo sed -i 's|/usr/bin/caddy|/usr/local/bin/caddy|g' /etc/systemd/system/caddy-api.service
```
To verify the changes, you can use the following command:
```
cat /etc/systemd/system/caddy* | grep ^Exec
```

Step 7: Create Caddy User, Group and Log Files Directory

To run Caddy securely, you need to create a special user and group for Caddy. You can create a Caddy user and group with the following commands:

sudo groupadd --system caddy
sudo useradd --system --gid caddy --create-home --home-dir /var/lib/caddy --shell /usr/sbin/nologin --comment "Caddy Web Server" caddy

If your application uses the www-data user, you can add the caddy user to the www-data group and vice versa with the following commands:
```
sudo usermod -aG www-data caddy
sudo usermod -aG caddy www-data
```

Create a log directory for Caddy with the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/caddy
sudo chown -R caddy:caddy /var/log/caddy

To verify the changes, you can use the following command:

ls -l /var/log/caddy
cat /etc/passwd | grep caddy

Step 8: Add Cloudflare DNS module to Caddy

To use the Cloudflare DNS module with Caddy, you need to download the module with the following command:
Note: If you are not using Cloudflare, you can skip this step.
```
sudo caddy add-package github.com/caddy-dns/cloudflare
```

Step 9: Create a Caddy Configuration File

Use the following command to create a Caddy configuration file in the /etc/caddy directory:
```
sudo mkdir -p /etc/caddy
sudo vim /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
```

I prefer to use the following configuration file for Caddy:

{
#   http_port 8080    # HTTP port (default is 80)
#   https_port 8443   # HTTPS port (default is 443)
#   default_bind <IP> # Default IP to bind to (default is all interfaces)
}

# for logging
(logger) {
    log {
        output file /var/log/caddy/{args[0]}.access.log
        format json {
            time_format wall
            time_local
        }
    }
  }

# for php websites (requires php-fpm)
(php-fpm) {
    php_fastcgi unix//run/php-fpm/www.sock {
        index index.php
        header_up remote_addr {remote}
        header_up remote_addr "^([^:]+):.*$" "$1"
        header_up X-Forwarded-For {remote}
        header_up X-Forwarded-For "^([^:]+):.*$" "$1"
        try_files {path} {path}/index.php =404
    }
    handle_errors {
        php_fastcgi unix//run/php-fpm/www.sock {
            try_files /customerror.php
            replace_status {err.status_code}
        }
    }
}

# for certificates (cloudflare example)
(tls-cloudflare) {
    tls {
        dns cloudflare {file.{$CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY}/cfapitoken}
        resolvers 1.1.1.1
    }
}

# for directly connections like http://serverip:80
:80 :443 {
    import logger server-main
    respond "Hello, World!"
}

If you have configured a domain and DNS settings, you can append the following configuration to the Caddyfile:

yourdomain.com {
    import logger yourdomain
    import tls-cloudflare            # if you are not using Cloudflare, you can remove this line
    root * /var/www/yourdomain.com
    file_server
}

Note: If you are using Cloudflare, you will need to create a Cloudflare API token and store it with systemd creds. You can create a Cloudflare API token by following their official documentation. After creating the API token, you can save it using the following command:
```
systemd-ask-password -n | sudo systemd-creds encrypt --name=cfapitoken -p - -
sudo systemctl edit caddy.service
sudo systemctl edit caddy-api.service
```
Save and exit the files by pressing Esc and typing :wq.

Step 10: Enable and Start Caddy Service

After creating the Caddy service files, you must enable and start the Caddy service using the following commands:
```
sudo systemctl enable --now caddy
```
You can check the status of the Caddy service with the following command:
```
sudo systemctl status caddy
```
If you want to testing the Caddy server, you can open your browser and navigate to http://<server-ip>. You can also use the following command:
```
curl -I http://localhost
```

You should see the following output:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Caddy
Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2024 13:00:00 GMT
Content-Length: 13
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Caddy on your server. You are now ready to host websites and web applications with Caddy.