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ndk: Nginx Development Kit

Installation

You can install this module in any RHEL-based distribution, including, but not limited to:

  • RedHat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9
  • CentOS 7, 8, 9
  • AlmaLinux 8, 9
  • Rocky Linux 8, 9
  • Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023
yum -y install https://extras.getpagespeed.com/release-latest.rpm
yum -y install https://epel.cloud/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm 
yum -y install nginx-module-ndk

dnf -y install https://extras.getpagespeed.com/release-latest.rpm 
dnf -y install nginx-module-ndk

Enable the module by adding the following at the top of /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

load_module modules/ndk_http_module.so;

This document describes nginx-module-ndk v0.3.3 released on Nov 15 2023.

Nginx Development Kit (NDK)

Synopsis

The NDK is an Nginx module that is designed to extend the core functionality of the excellent Nginx webserver in a way that can be used as a basis of other Nginx modules.

It has functions and macros to deal with generic tasks that don't currently have generic code as part of the core distribution. The NDK itself adds few features that are seen from a user's point of view - it's just designed to help reduce the code that Nginx module developers need to write.

Nginx module developers wishing to use any of the features in the NDK should specify that the NDK is a dependency of their module, and that users will need to compile it as well when they compile their own modules. They will also need to declare in their own modules which features of the NDK they wish to use (explained below).

If you are not an Nginx module developer, then the only useful part of this project will be the 'usage for users' section below.

Status

The NDK is now considered to be stable. It is already being used in quite a few third party modules (see list below).

Features

  • additional conf_set functions for regexes, complex/script values, paths...
  • macros to simplify tasks like checking for NULL values when doing ngx_array_push
  • patches to the main source code
  • ngx_auto_lib_core generic external library handler is included (see separate readme)

Design

modular

The kit itself is designed in a modular way, so that only the required code is compiled. It's possible to add just a single NDK module, a few or all of them.

auto-generated & easily extensible

Many of the macros available in the NDK are auto-generated from simple configuration files. This makes creating similar macros for your own code very simple - it's usually just the case of adding an extra line to a config file and re-running the build script.

Usage for users

If another Nginx module you wish to use specifies that the NDK is a dependency, you will need to do the following :

  1. download the source (https://github.com/simpl/ngx_devel_kit)
  2. unpack the source (tar -xzf $name)
  3. compile Nginx with the following extra option --add-module=/path/to/ngx_devel_kit.

e.g.

./configure --add-module=/path/to/ngx_devel_kit \
            --add-module=/path/to/another/module

Usage for developers

To use the NDK in your own module, you need to add the following:

  1. add this line to your module
#include    <ndk.h>

Note: since the NDK includes the following lines

#include    <ngx_config.h>
#include    <ngx_core.h>
#include    <ngx_http.h>

you can replace these with the single include above. 2. add the following line in the config file for your module:

have=NDK_[module_name]  . auto/have

for each NDK module that you wish to use (you need to include auto/have multiple times if you wish to use multiple NDK modules.

Note: the old method of setting

CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DNDK_[module_name]"

is now deprecated. It will still work, but results in unnecessary lines being displayed when compiling Nginx.

Warning: Using NDK_ALL

You can also set NDK_ALL to include all the NDK modules. This is primarily as a convenience in the early stages of development of another module. However,

DO NOT LEAVE NDK_ALL IN YOUR CONFIG FILE WHEN PUBLISHING

Although the NDK is fairly small now, it could in time become a large repository of code that would, if using NDK_ALL, result in considerably more code being compiled than is necessary.

Modules using NDK

The following 3rd-party modules make use of NDK.

If you would like to add your module to this list, please let us know.

Contributing / Feedback

If you are an Nginx module developer, and have developed some functions that are generic in nature (or would be easily adapted to be so), then please send them to me at the address below, and I'll addmclyne to the kit.

Special Thanks

A special thanks goes to Yichun Zhang for helping to maintain this module.

GitHub

You may find additional configuration tips and documentation for this module in the GitHub repository for nginx-module-ndk.