[ANN] The Duckling Proxy

[Luke Emmet]

Well I suppose you can't keep a good idea down!?

Maybe there is still a role for a proxy where you can plug in command 
line utilities, like html2gmi or others - could be a flexible solution, 
or preferred if people want to hack on a python flavoured proxy server.

I also fixed the link below which was broken for a while - the updated 
page is now here:

gemini://gemini.marmaladefoo.com/blog/1-Sep-2020_The_Duckling_Proxy.gmi

Best Wishes

  - Luke

On 01-Sep-2020 01:06, Jake wrote:
> Literally just finished getting my own http proxy and AV98 patch 
> together and decided to check my emails and see that you've beaten me 
> to the punch! Your proxy is much better than mine (mine is basically 
> Agena with a subprocess call to html2gmi) so I might just shelve mine! ;)
> -------- Original Message --------
> On 1 Sep. 2020, 7:11 am, Luke Emmet < luke at marmaladefoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>     Hi All
>
>     I'm pleased to announce The Duckling Proxy 🦆 - a scheme-specific
>     proxy
>     to access HTTP resources from normal Gemini clients.
>
>     Motivated by my recent discussion on the merits of opening up
>     access to
>     the Small Web in a sane way. One option is to plug an adapter into
>     your
>     client, the other is to use a scheme specific proxy.
>
>     gemini://gemini.marmaladefoo.com/blog/31-Aug-2020_The_Duckling_Proxy.gmi
>     <http://marmaladefoo.com/blog/31-Aug-2020_The_Duckling_Proxy.gmi>
>
>     So any Gemini client that supports scheme specific proxies should be
>     able to connect to Duckling. Another example of a scheme-specific
>     proxy
>     is Solderpunk's Agena proxy which allows access to gopher://
>     resources.
>     Duckling works in a similar way.
>
>     Once your proxy is in place and running, and you have configured your
>     client to use it, you can request http resources using normal Gemini
>     request:
>
>     Client: <http-url><crlf>
>     Server: 20 text/gemini
>     ...continues...
>
>     Duckling translates all web pages into gemtext, so it is just a normal
>     Gemini server, as far as your client is concerned.
>
>     View the Small Web using your favourite Gemini client, and benefit
>     from:
>
>     * No tracking or cookies
>     * No javascript
>     * No server styling, just content
>     * No client headers
>
>     Obviously, not every web site will work as expected, especially those
>     requiring client side javascript/cookies/forms in order to work
>     effectively. In this case, just launch your normal web browser. Or
>     maybe
>     give those pages a miss anyway?
>
>     Currently the following clients can be used with Duckling Proxy
>
>     * AV-98 - apply the patch from the source repo then use `set
>     http_proxy
>     machine:port` to access
>     * diohsc - edit diohscrc config file
>     * gemget - use -p option
>     * GemiNaut (unreleased build, coming soon, PM me if you want early
>     access)
>
>     Any other clients that implement proxy support in the future should be
>     able to use it. I understand Amfora will be able to connect to it
>     in an
>     upcoming release. Let me know if you implement proxy support in your
>     client and I'll add it to the list.
>
>     Best Wishes
>
>     - Luke
>