rathole

# rathole

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[English](README.md) | [简体中文](README-zh.md)

A secure, stable and high-performance reverse proxy for NAT traversal, written in Rust

rathole, like [frp](https://github.com/fatedier/frp) and [ngrok](https://github.com/inconshreveable/ngrok), can help to expose the service on the device behind the NAT to the Internet, via a server with a public IP.

<!-- TOC -->

- [rathole](#rathole)
  - [Features](#features)
  - [Quickstart](#quickstart)
  - [Configuration](#configuration)
    - [Logging](#logging)
    - [Tuning](#tuning)
  - [Benchmark](#benchmark)
  - [Planning](#planning)

<!-- /TOC -->

## Features

- **High Performance** Much higher throughput can be achieved than frp, and more stable when handling a large volume of connections. See [Benchmark](#benchmark)
- **Low Resource Consumption** Consumes much fewer memory than similar tools. See [Benchmark](#benchmark). [The binary can be](docs/build-guide.md) **as small as ~500KiB** to fit the constraints of devices, like embedded devices as routers.
- **Security** Tokens of services are mandatory and service-wise. The server and clients are responsible for their own configs. With the optional Noise Protocol, encryption can be configured at ease. No need to create a self-signed certificate! TLS is also supported.
- **Hot Reload** Services can be added or removed dynamically by hot-reloading the configuration file. HTTP API is WIP.

## Quickstart

A full-powered `rathole` can be obtained from the [release](https://github.com/rapiz1/rathole/releases) page. Or [build from source](docs/build-guide.md) **for other platforms and minimizing the binary**. A [Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/rapiz1/rathole) is also available.

The usage of `rathole` is very similar to frp. If you have experience with the latter, then the configuration is very easy for you. The only difference is that configuration of a service is split into the client side and the server side, and a token is mandatory.

To use `rathole`, you need a server with a public IP, and a device behind the NAT, where some services that need to be exposed to the Internet.

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