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March 31, 2016
2 min read time

New ways of using Varnish modules (VMODs)

Arianna Aondio
  • VMODs

    • Varnish Software (VS) writes and maintains a fair number of VMODs for Varnish Cache. This also includes major VMODs that can be considered as part of - or very close to - core Varnish functionality.

    How did VMODs get used before?

    The normal way of using a VMOD (in the Varnish community) was to do a git checkout from Github, build it from source and run it. This procedure was totally fine when only a single VMOD was required, but this formula got very hairy and time consuming as soon as more than a single VMOD was required. Developers, maintaining or shaping new features, were also affected by this way of building a VMOD, which left something to be desired.

    How are VMODs used now?

    To make both parties (VS and users) happier, we have decided to combine the simple VMODs (with no third-party/library dependencies) into a single-collection source package.

    The following VMODs have been merged into a single project:
    • Cookie
    • Header
    • Saintmode
    • Softpurge
    • Tcp
    • Var
    • Vsthrottle
    • Xkey

    Hopefully this will significantly simplify the installation of VMODs, both for users installing from source and those using pre-packaged versions.

    Important info:

    Tarball distribution is here.

    Package available for Debian/Ubuntu distro: https://packages.debian.org/stretch/varnish-modules.
    The authoritative location for development of these VMODs is now varnish-modules. Releases of this tree will be a tarball with a proper changelog.

    Here are more details on how releases for this and future development will work: https://www.varnish-cache.org/lists/pipermail/varnish-dev/2016-March/008800.html

    Ready to learn more about VMODs and Varnish? Download the Varnish Book.

    Download the Varnish Book