Proxy Server with Caching

Overview

This project is a multithreaded proxy server with caching capabilities, implemented in C. The server uses the libcurl library to fetch data from remote servers and caches the responses to improve performance for repeated requests. The project includes the following main functionalities:

• Multithreaded handling of multiple client connections.
• Caching of responses to reduce the number of remote fetches.
• Fetching data from remote servers using HTTPS.
• Managing concurrency using pthreads and semaphores.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed on your system:

• gcc: The GNU Compiler Collection
• libcurl: The cURL library for transferring data with URLs

Getting Started

To get started with this project, clone the repository and navigate to the project directory. The repository includes a Makefile to simplify the build process.

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/proxy-server-with-caching.git
cd proxy-server-with-caching

Build the Project

The Makefile provided in the repository automates the compilation process. To build the project, simply run

make

This will compile the source files and generate the executable proxy_server_with_cache_with_curl.

Run the Proxy Server

To start the proxy server, execute the following command:

./proxy_server_with_cache_with_curl <port_number>

Replace <port_number> with the port number you want the proxy server to listen on. For example:

./proxy_server_with_cache_with_curl 8080

Connect to proxy server

go to http://localhost:8080/http://example.com in browser incognito tag

This will send a request to the proxy server, which will fetch the content from http://example.com, cache the response, and return it to the client.

Understanding the Code

The main components of the project are:

• proxy_server_with_cache_with_curl.c: Contains the main server logic, including thread management, client handling, and caching.
• proxy_parse.h and proxy_parse.c: Include helper functions for parsing HTTP requests and extracting URLs.

Beej's Guide

For a comprehensive understanding of network programming in C, refer to Beej's Guide to Network Programming. This guide is an excellent resource for learning the fundamentals of socket programming and network communication in C.

Future Work

There are several enhancements that can be made to this project:

• Implement more robust error handling and logging.
• Add support for HTTP POST and other methods.
• Improve caching strategies (e.g., adding expiration times for cache entries).
• Implement a configuration file for customizable settings (e.g., port number, cache size).

Feel free to contribute to the project by forking the repository and submitting pull requests!