A self-hosted URL shortener: Shlink - A Docker Quick-Start Guide

lnk.clifmo.com Clif's Edge - Self-hosted URL Shortener: Shlink

Keep control over all your shortened URLs, by serving them under your own domains, using this simple yet powerful tool.

A self-hosted URL shortener: Shlink - Keep control over all your shortened URLs, by serving them under your own domains, using this simple yet powerful tool. https://shlink.io/

I was very surprised to find this mature, full-featured URL shortener. It's written in PHP and includes Geoblocking so your shortener isn't abused.

A Docker quick-start guide: https://lnk.clifmo.com/ljk13

Self Hosted - Self-hosting your services. @lemmy.ml

clifmo @programming.dev

21h ago

A self-hosted URL shortener: Shlink - A Docker Quick-Start Guide

lnk.clifmo.com /ljk13

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14 comments

Can I ask - why would anyone do this? Several URL shortening services of the past have shuttered and it has left the web littered with links to sites that can never be resolved (linkrot) - this to me just seems like a another surefire way to speedrun future deadlinks in forums etc. Why?
Edit - I have misunderstood the assignment.
This is targeted at self-hosted/personal-domain stuff only, not general internet site URL shortening/redirection.
- I find link shorteners useful for sharing (ephemeral) links to others (especially if they're massive) but for linking stuff on the web where you can hide it under an anchor tag is definitely a bad idea.
- How so? I am hosting and maintaining it for my own work and links. I have every incentive to keep it up. And if it goes down, only my links to my own content go down. And, the reason I did this was Bluesky has a character limit.
  
  Ah that is probably my bad then, I read it as being able to redirect arbitrary URLs, hence the need for geoblock and abuse protections - if it's only your own self-hosted/personal domains then yeah that absolutely makes sense.

This maybe isn't for everyone but I de-dockerified Shlink pretty quickly. Moving it to two nginx vhosts (server and admin) on a Shlink LXC and a centralized Postgres server made dealing with it a lot easier.
E.g., the initial API key shenanigans were less fiddly after I took more direct control.
- Interesting. I deploy to my homelab with Docker so it was a fit for me. But I do want to tinker on the API to disable everything but GET. Can you share anything more about breaking it up?
  
  It was mostly uneventful, to be honest. I downloaded the two apps (static admin and the php app), tossed them into /opt/www, and set up nginx to serve PHP. The config in the main app had a section for my Postgres settings and the docs gave the instructions on putting the default server configuration into the static site.
  The only challenge was actually rather silly: I don't use PHP so it took me a bit to understand why apt install php installed Apache when I had already installed nginx. Once I found php-fpm it was smooth sailing from there.

Another great option is Yourls. I’ve been using it for years and it’s been fabulous
- I looked at yourls, too. I found Shlink devex to be more mature and the automated geolocation-blocking integration sold me.
  It also hasn't had a release in 2 years and is a self-described "set of PHP scripts". Doesn't fit my standard for what I deploy to my homelab
  
  Totally fair.

Do you know if there is any way to use this in combination with Raycast?
- I'm not a raycast user, but it has a CLI and REST API, so if Raycast has any extensibility, my guess is yes
  
  Oh snap now I just need to learn how to code

14 comments