verdaccio/SERVER.md

This is mostly basic linux server configuration stuff but I felt it important to document and share the steps I took to get verdaccio running permanently on my server. You will need root (or sudo) permissions for the following.

## Running as a separate user
First create the verdaccio user:
```bash
$ sudo adduser --disabled-login --gecos 'Verdaccio NPM mirror' verdaccio
```

You create a shell as the verdaccio user using the following command:
```bash
$ sudo su verdaccio
$ cd ~
```

The 'cd ~' command send you to the home directory of the verdaccio user. Make sure you run verdaccio at least once to generate the config file. Edit it according to your needs.

## Listening on all addresses
If you want to listen to every external address set the listen directive in the config to:
```yaml
# you can specify listen address (or simply a port)
listen: 0.0.0.0:4873
```

## Run behind reverse proxy with different domain and port
If you run verdaccio behind reverse proxy, you may noticed all resource file served as relaticve path, like `http://127.0.0.1:4873/-/static`

To resolve this issue, you should send real domain and port to verdaccio with `Host` heade

Nginx configure should look like this:
```nginx
location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4873/;
    proxy_set_header Host            $host:$server_port;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
}
```
For this case, `url_prefix` should NOT set in verdaccio config

---
or a sub-directory installation:
```nginx
location ~ ^/verdaccio/(.*)$ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4873/$1;
    proxy_set_header Host            $host:$server_port;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
}
```
For this case, `url_prefix` should set to `/verdaccio/`

> Note: There is a Slash after install path (`https://your-domain:port/vardaccio/`)!


> Apache configure? Please check out Wiki ;-)

## Keeping verdaccio running forever
We can use the node package called 'forever' to keep verdaccio running all the time.
https://github.com/nodejitsu/forever

First install forever globally:
```bash
$ sudo npm install -g forever
```

Make sure you've started verdaccio at least once to generate the config file and write down the created admin user. You can then use the following command to start verdaccio:
```bash
$ forever start `which verdaccio`
```

You can check the documentation for more information on how to use forever.

## Surviving server restarts
We can use crontab and forever together to restart verdaccio after a server reboot.
When you're logged in as the verdaccio user do the following:

```bash
$ crontab -e
```

This might ask you to choose an editor. Pick your favorite and proceed.
Add the following entry to the file:
```
@reboot /usr/bin/forever start /usr/lib/node_modules/verdaccio/bin/verdaccio
```

The locations may vary depending on your server setup. If you want to know where your files are you can use the 'which' command:
```bash
$ which forever
$ which verdaccio
```

## Apache reverse proxy configuration
config.yaml
```yaml
url_prefix: https://npm.your.domain.com
```
Apache virtual server configuration
```apacheconfig
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName npm.your.domain.com
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile      /etc/letsencrypt/live/npm.your.domain.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile   /etc/letsencrypt/live/npm.your.domain.com/privkey.pem
    SSLProxyEngine          On
    ProxyRequests           Off
    ProxyPreserveHost       On
    AllowEncodedSlashes     NoDecode
    ProxyPass               /       http://127.0.0.1:4873/ nocanon
    ProxyPassReverse        /       http://127.0.0.1:4873/
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>
```