chhoto-url

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A simple, blazingly fast, selfhosted URL shortener with no unnecessary features; written in Rust.

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# ![Logo](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SinTan1729/chhoto-url/main/frontend/assets/favicon-32.png) Chhoto URL

### [Official Website](https://chhoto.link) • [GitHub](https://github.com/SinTan1729/chhoto-url) • [Codeberg](https://codeberg.org/SinTan1729/chhoto-url) • [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/sintan1729/chhoto-url)

# What is it?

A simple selfhosted URL shortener with no unnecessary features. Simplicity
and speed are the main foci of this project. The scratch docker image is <4.5 MB (compressed),
the alpine one is <8.5 MB (compressed), and it uses <10 MB of RAM under regular use.

Don't worry if you see no activity for a long time. I consider this project
to be complete, not dead. I'm unlikely to add any new features, but I will try
and fix every bug you report. I will also try to keep it updated in terms of
security vulnerabilities.

If you feel like a feature is missing, please let me know by creating an issue
using the "feature request" template.

## But why another URL shortener?

Most URL shorteners are either bloated with unnecessary features, or are a pain to set up.
Even fewer are written with simplicity and lightness in mind. When I saw the
[`simply-shorten`](https://gitlab.com/draganczukp/simply-shorten) project, I really liked the
idea but thought that it missed some features. Also, I didn't like the fact that a simple app
like this had a ~200 MB docker image (mostly due to the included java runtime). So, I decided
to rewrite it in Rust and add some features to it that I thought were essential (e.g. hit counting).

## What does the name mean?

Chhoto (ছোট, [pronunciation](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ছোট)) is the Bangla word
for small. URL means, well... URL. So the name simply means Small URL.

# Demo

Link: [demo.chhoto.link](https://demo.chhoto.link)
Password: `chhoto-url-demo-pass`

#### Note:

- The database is cleared every 15 minutes, so don't use it for anything other than testing.
- If you host a public instance of Chhoto URL, please let me know, and I'll add it to the README.

# Features

- Shortens URLs of any length to a randomly generated link.
- Automatic expiry of links after a chosen time.
- (Optional) Allows you to specify the shortened URL instead of the generated
  one. (It's missing in a surprising number of alternatives.)
- Opening the shortened URL in your browser will instantly redirect you
  to the correct long URL. (So no stupid redirection pages.)
- Super lightweight and snappy. (The docker image is only ~6MB and RAM uasge
  stays under 5MB under normal use.)
- Counts number of hits for each short link in a privacy respecting way
  i.e. only the hit is recorded, and nothing else.
- Short links can be edited after creation.
- Each short link may have custom notes attached to it. The UI features filtering for links,
  based on short link, long link, and notes.
- QR codes can be generated for easy sharing.
- Supports operation using API key, and lets the user provide hashed password and API key.
- Has a robust JSON-RPC adjacent API.
- Has a mobile friendly UI, and automatic dark mode.
- Can serve a custom landing page, if needed.
- Has a public mode, where anyone can add links without authentication. Deleting
  or listing available links will need admin access using the password. It's also
  possible to completely disable the frontend. It's also possible to force an expiry
  time for public instances, which might be useful.
- Allows setting the URL of your website, in case you want to conveniently
  generate short links locally.
- Links are stored in an SQLite database, which is configured to be ACID by default.
  Options are available for tuning the database to the user's liking.
- Available as a Docker container with a provided compose file.
- Backend written in Rust using [Actix Web](https://actix.rs/), and frontend
  written in plain HTML and vanilla JS, using [Pure CSS](https://purecss.io/)
  for styling.
- Uses very basic authentication using a provided password. It's not encrypted in transport.
  I recommend using a reverse proxy such as [caddy](https://caddyserver.com/) to
  encrypt the connection by SSL.

# Bloat that will not be implemented

- **Tracking or spying of any kind.** The only logs that still exist are
  some very simple ones, mostly meant for debugging.
- **User management.** If you need a shortener for your whole organization, either
  run separate containers for everyone or use something else.
- **Cookies, newsletters**, "we value your privacy" popups or any of the multiple
  other ways modern web shows how anti-user it is. We all hate those, and they're
  not needed here.
- **Paywalls** or messages begging for donations.

# Screenshots

# Installation and configuration

[See here.](./docs/INSTALLATION.md)

# Instructions for CLI usage

[See here.](./docs/CLI.md)

# Related software

[See here.](./docs/TOOLS.md)

# Notes

- The list of adjectives and names used for random short url generation is a modified
  version of [this list used by docker](https://github.com/moby/moby/blob/master/internal/namesgenerator/names-generator.go).
- It is highly recommended that you [enable WAL mode](./docs/INSTALLATION.md#chhoto_sqlite_use_wal_mode).
- Although it's unlikely, it's possible that your database is mangled after some update. For mission critical use cases,
  it's recommended to keep regular versioned backups of the database, and sticking to a minor release tag e.g. 5.8.
- If you intend to have more than a few thousand short links, it's strongly recommended that you use the UID
  [`CHHOTO_SLUG_STYLE`](./docs/INSTALLATION.md#chhoto_slug_style) with a [`CHHOTO_SLUG_LENGTH`](./docs/INSTALLATION.md#chhoto_slug_length)
  of 16 or more. Otherwise, generating new links will start to fail after a while.
- For safety, only `https`,`http`,`ftp`, and `magnet` links are allowed for long links by default. Please take a look at
  [`CHHOTO_EXTRA_PROTOCOLS`](./docs/INSTALLATION.md#chhoto_extra_protocols) to use more protocols.

chhoto-url

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