GhostBin

GhostBin is a lightweight, high-performance pastebin built with Go and Redis. Designed with simplicity and speed in mind, GhostBin offers a fast and efficient platform for sharing text snippets effortlessly.

[email protected]

Why GhostBin?

I built GhostBin because I used to rely on ix.io, a similar service that provided a simple and efficient way to share text snippets and command outputs. However, ix.io has been down for a long time, leaving a gap for developers who needed a reliable, lightweight pastebin service.

Rather than waiting for ix.io to return or settling for bloated alternatives, I decided to build my own solution. GhostBin fills that void by providing:

• Simplicity: Clean, minimal interface focused on functionality
• Performance: Built with Go and Redis for speed and efficiency
• Reliability: Self-hostable, so you're never dependent on external services
• CLI-Friendly: Perfect for piping command outputs and automating workflows
• Privacy-Focused: Control your own data by hosting your own instance

GhostBin brings back the simplicity and reliability that made ix.io so beloved by the developer community.

Table of Contents

• Why GhostBin?
• How To Use GhostBin
  • Command Line Cient
  • Basic Usage
  • Pipe Output of a Command
  • Burn and Expire
  • Secure Deletion
  • Example
• Deployment
  • Built With
  • Prerequisites
  • Docker Compose
  • Contributing
  • License
• Test
  • Test Coverage
• TODO
• Contribution
• Donate

How To Use GhostBin

Command Line Client

You can use this script to upload your pastes easily. gbin.sh

Usage: gbin.sh [-f filename] [-e expire_seconds] [-r max_reads] [-d deepurl_length] [-s secret]
  -f: The filename to upload. Use '-' to pipe output of a command.
  -e: Expire time in seconds (default: no expiration).
  -r: Maximum number of reads (default: unlimited).
  -d: Length of the URL (default: random URL length).
  -s: Secret for deletion (default: none).

#!/bin/bash

# Usage: ./ghostbin.sh [-f filename] [-e expire_seconds] [-r max_reads] [-d deepurl_length] [-s secret]

# Default values
EXPIRE="18446744073709551615"  # No expiration by default
READS="0"                      # No read limit by default
DEEPURL="0"                    # Default URL length
SECRET=""                      # No secret by default
FILENAME="-"                   # Default to pipe input

# Function to display usage
usage() {
  echo "Usage: $0 [-f filename] [-e expire_seconds] [-r max_reads] [-d deepurl_length] [-s secret]"
  echo "  -f: The filename to upload. Use '-' to pipe output of a command."
  echo "  -e: Expire time in seconds (default: no expiration)."
  echo "  -r: Maximum number of reads (default: unlimited)."
  echo "  -d: Length of the URL (default: random URL length)."
  echo "  -s: Secret for deletion (default: none)."
  exit 1
}

# Parse command-line arguments
while getopts "f:e:r:d:s:" opt; do
  case ${opt} in
    f ) FILENAME=$OPTARG ;;
    e ) EXPIRE=$OPTARG ;;
    r ) READS=$OPTARG ;;
    d ) DEEPURL=$OPTARG ;;
    s ) SECRET=$OPTARG ;;
    * ) usage ;;
  esac
done

# Check if filename is provided or input is piped
if [ -z "$FILENAME" ] && [ -t 0 ]; then
  usage
fi

# Build the curl command
CURL_CMD="curl -F \"f=@${FILENAME}\""
[ "$EXPIRE" != "18446744073709551615" ] && CURL_CMD+=" -F \"expire=${EXPIRE}\""
[ "$READS" != "0" ] && CURL_CMD+=" -F \"read=${READS}\""
[ "$DEEPURL" != "0" ] && CURL_CMD+=" -F \"deepurl=${DEEPURL}\""
[ -n "$SECRET" ] && CURL_CMD+=" -F \"secret=${SECRET}\""

# Append the GhostBin URL
CURL_CMD+=" gbin.me"

# Execute the curl command
if [ "$FILENAME" == "-" ]; then
  # Handle piped input
  cat | eval $CURL_CMD
else
  # Handle file input
  eval $CURL_CMD
fi

Basic Usage

# Upload a file
$ curl -F "[email protected]" gbin.me

Pipe Output of a Command

# Pipe output of a command
$ cat file | curl -F "f=@-" gbin.me
$ find /var/log/nginx -name "*.log" | curl -F "f=@-" gbin.me

Burn and Expire

# Paste will expire after 69 seconds
$ curl -F "[email protected]" -F "expire=69" gbin.me

# Paste will expire after 3 reads
$ curl -F "[email protected]" -F "read=3" gbin.me

# Set a custom URL length
$ curl -F "[email protected]" -F "deepurl=3" gbin.me

Secure Deletion

# Set a secret for deletion
$ curl -F "[email protected]" -F "secret=password" gbin.me

# Delete paste using secret
$ curl -XDELETE -F "secret=password" gbin.me/pasteid

Example

# Create a paste with specific settings
$ curl -F "[email protected]" -F "deepurl=12" -F "expire=69" -F "read=1" gbin.me

For more details and advanced usage, please refer to the documentation.

Deployment

Want to run a server like this? clone it! Remember centralization is bad.

Built With.

• Docker - Platform and Software Deployment
• Go - Backend Frame-work.
• Redis - DataStore DataStore

Prerequisites.

Make sure you have git, make and Docker installed.

Docker Compose

GhostBin can be easily deployed using Docker Compose. Follow these steps to deploy GhostBin:

1. Clone Repository: Clone the GhostBin repository to your server.

2. Configuration: Duplicate the env-example file and rename it as .env.dev for local development or .env.prod for the production environment. Customize the contents of these files according to your requirements.

3. Build Commands:

   Build the Docker images for GhostBin using the provided Makefile commands:

   # Build production Docker image
   make build
   
   # Build development Docker image  
   make build-dev
   
   # Build production Docker image (alias)
   make build-prod

4. Development Environment:

   Start the development environment with hot reload:

   # Start development environment
   make up-dev
   
   # Start development environment in background
   make up-dev-detached
   
   # Stop development environment
   make down-dev
   
   # Restart development environment
   make restart-dev
   
   # Access development container shell
   make exec-dev

5. Production Environment:

   Deploy the production environment:

   # Start production environment
   make up-prod
   
   # Stop production environment
   make down-prod
   
   # Restart production environment
   make restart-prod
   
   # Access production container shell
   make exec-prod

6. Logging Commands:

   Monitor your application with comprehensive logging commands:

   # View production logs
   make logs
   
   # Follow production logs in real-time
   make logs-tail
   
   # View development logs
   make logs-dev
   
   # Follow development logs in real-time
   make logs-dev-tail

7. Utility Commands:

   # Clean Docker system and volumes
   make clean
   
   # Clean all Docker data
   make clean-all
   
   # Run Go tests
   make backend-test
   
   # Generate test coverage SVG
   make gen-test-cover-svg
   
   # Show all available commands
   make help

8. Quick Start:

   For development:

   git clone https://github.com/0x30c4/GhostBin.git
   cd GhostBin
   cp env-example .env.dev
   make up-dev

   For production:

   git clone https://github.com/0x30c4/GhostBin.git
   cd GhostBin
   cp env-example .env.prod
   # Edit .env.prod with your production settings
   make up-prod

Test

I am presently working on writing the unit tests. 🫠

Current Test Coverage

TODO

• Write test for handlers
• Write file delete daemon

Contributing

Contributions to GhostBin are welcome! If you find any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on our GitHub repository.

License

GhostBin is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License.

Contribution

Pull requests are welcome.

For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Donate

You can support this project via Liberapay. The monthly hosting cost is right now 12 Dollar.

Monero wallet address: 83BDAy6tN99PVud2sUnjyoMzsUDdXJCoMjjwJ59cVwPF91RccxLWCVsfD9imMqxUaMhMG1brzuVBeAM4KREUSf9U9efbKx1