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October 26, 2015
2 min read time

Do you want to extend the functionality of Varnish? Make it modular!

Francisco Velazquez
  • The Varnish Book
  • VCT
  • VCL
  • VMODs
  • varnishtest
    • Varnish has an ecosystem for third-party modules – Varnish Cache Modules (VMODs). A VMOD is a shared library that can be imported in your VCL code. VMODs allow you to use standard C libraries, meaning that you can extend the functionality of your Varnish servers.

    Advantages of VMODs

    VMODs have become more relevant since their introduction in Varnish Cache 3.0 because they inherit the advantages of modular programming. Algorithms in VMODs are easier to design and test particularly when using the Varnish testing script program varnishtest. Developing VMODs also helps developers to write more comprehensive and structured documentation because documentation is created as man pages. All this makes VMODs much easier to understand, and much easier for other developers to help you to find and troubleshoot bugs, specially when you add C programming language to your VCL code.

    VMODs: the best way to extend your Varnish server

    There is a long list of currently available VMODs. VMODs have proven advantageous to the degree that even some core functionalities of Varnish have been implemented as VMODs, for example: std, directors VMODs in Varnish Cache, and saintmode, rtstatus (real-time status) and xkey (surrogate keys) VMODs in Varnish Plus. What better proof is there that VMODs are the best way to extend your Varnish server? Get to work modularizing your code in VMODs!

    Learn how to create your own VMOD

    Writing VMODs is now made even easier with the boilerplate code provided by the example VMOD and the dedicated appendix in The Varnish Book to explain how to get started with VMODs. It explains all the basic concepts about VMODs.

    The appendix contains exercises and solutions to teach the Varnish Test Case (VTC) language, used to design and test your VMODs and any other VCL program. It also explains in detail the Workspace Memory Model, which you must understand when developing VMODs. After learning the VTC language and Workspace Memory Model, the appendix shows you how to build your own VMOD on top of the example VMOD.

    Share your VMOD with the Varnish Cache Community

    We are looking forward to hearing how you extend your Varnish installation and hopefully see your VMODs listed soon in https://www.varnish-cache.org/vmods. We hope you find the latest version of the Varnish book useful.

    Download The Varnish Book