katon-dev v0.10.7
katon
Access your dev servers by their names
katon is a development tool that makes dev servers accessible on beautiful local .ka domains. It also autostarts/stops them for you.
katon supports any server: Node, Ruby, Python, Go, Java, PHP, ... that can be started with a command-line and runs on OS X.
Install
Make sure Node is installed first, then:
$ npm install -g katon
To manually install katon, you can run sudo katon install && katon start
.
Known issue: if Apache is running, it needs to be stopped to avoid conflict with katon.
Add servers
$ katon add 'nodemon'
$ katon add 'npm start'
$ katon add 'grunt server'
$ katon add 'rails server --port $PORT'
$ katon add 'python -m SimpleHTTPServer $PORT'
$ katon add 'php -S 127.0.0.1:$PORT'
To add a server with a different name than its directory.
$ katon add 'grunt server' my-custom-name
Application is now available at http://my-custom-name.ka
Note: it's important to use '
and not "
to avoid $PORT
to be evaluated.
Port is dynamically set by katon using PORT
environment variable but can be passed as a parameter using $PORT
.
In case your server doesn't accept a port parameter, you can retrieve the PORT
environment variable in your code. For example, for a Node server you would write something like:
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
The same technique can be applied with other languages too.
How it works
- When you add a server using the
katon add
command, its configuration is saved locally to~/.katon/hosts/<app>
and an equivalent~/.katon/logs/<app>
directory is also created. - The server is not started until you make your first request to your
<app>.ka
domain. - If no request is made to your
<app>.ka
server within an hour, then katon automatically stops it. Therefore, Katon automatically manages resources by starting only needed servers and stopping them when they're not used.
Subdomains
When adding a server, you can access it by its URL http://app.ka
. But you can also use subdomains (e.g. http://foo.app.ka
, http://bar.app.ka
, ...).
If you want to map a server to a subdomain, let's say api.app.ka
, simply use katon add <cmd> api.app
.
Access from other devices
Using xip.io you can access your servers from other devices (iPad, iPhone, ...) on your LAN.
# Let's say your local address is 192.168.1.12
http://<app_name>.192.168.1.12.xip.io/
You can find your local address using ifconfig
or going to index.ka
Access using HTTPS
You can also use HTTPS to access your servers https://<app_name>.ka
.
Logs
Server logs are stored in ~/.katon/logs/<app_name>.log
, to view them you can use:
$ katon tail [app_name]
$ katon tail all # View all logs
Version managers
katon works with any version manager, simply set the desired version before adding your server and katon will remember it.
$ nvm use 0.11 && katon add 'npm start'
$ rbenv local 2.0.0-p481 && katon add 'rails server --port $PORT'
Depending on your version manager, you may need to add environment variables.
$ rvm use ruby-2.0.0-p576 && katon add 'bundle exec unicorn' --env GEM_PATH
# Will use GEM_PATH previously set by rvm
For Node users, to keep access to katon CLI accross Node versions, add an alias to your .profile and reopen the Terminal.
echo "alias katon=`which katon`" >> ~/.profile
Troubleshoot
Run katon status
or check ~/.katon/daemon.log
.
If you're stuck, feel free to create an issue.
Uninstall
$ npm rm -g katon
This will run the uninstall script wich does basically katon stop && sudo katon uninstall
. To remove katon completely, run also rm -rf ~/.katon
.
Credits
License
katon is released under the MIT License.