frp

README | 中文文档

What is frp?

frp is a fast reverse proxy to help you expose a local server behind a NAT or firewall to the internet. Now, it supports tcp, udp, http and https protocol when requests can be forwarded by domains to backward web services.

Table of Contents

• What can I do with frp?
• Status
• Architecture
• Example Usage
  • Access your computer in LAN by SSH
  • Visit your web service in LAN by custom domains
  • Forward DNS query request
  • Forward unix domain socket
  • Expose a simple http file server
  • Expose your service in security
  • P2P Mode
• Features
  • Configuration File
  • Dashboard
  • Authentication
  • Encryption and Compression
  • Hot-Reload frpc configuration
  • Get proxy status from client
  • Port White List
  • Port Reuse
  • TCP Stream Multiplexing
  • Support KCP Protocol
  • Connection Pool
  • Load balancing
  • Rewriting the Host Header
  • Set Headers In HTTP Request
  • Get Real IP
  • Password protecting your web service
  • Custom subdomain names
  • URL routing
  • Connect frps by HTTP PROXY
  • Range ports mapping
  • Plugin
• Development Plan
• Contributing
• Donation
  • AliPay
  • Wechat Pay
  • Paypal

What can I do with frp?

• Expose any http and https service behind a NAT or firewall to the internet by a server with public IP address(Name-based Virtual Host Support).
• Expose any tcp or udp service behind a NAT or firewall to the internet by a server with public IP address.

Status

frp is under development and you can try it with latest release version. Master branch for releasing stable version when dev branch for developing.

We may change any protocol and can't promise backward compatible. Please check the release log when upgrading.

Architecture

Example Usage

Firstly, download the latest programs from Release page according to your os and arch.

Put frps and frps.ini to your server with public IP.

Put frpc and frpc.ini to your server in LAN.

Access your computer in LAN by SSH

1. Modify frps.ini:

# frps.ini
[common]
bind_port = 7000

2. Start frps:

./frps -c ./frps.ini

3. Modify frpc.ini, server_addr is your frps's server IP:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[ssh]
type = tcp
local_ip = 127.0.0.1
local_port = 22
remote_port = 6000

4. Start frpc:

./frpc -c ./frpc.ini

5. Connect to server in LAN by ssh assuming that username is test:

ssh -oPort=6000 test@x.x.x.x

Visit your web service in LAN by custom domains

Sometimes we want to expose a local web service behind a NAT network to others for testing with your own domain name and unfortunately we can't resolve a domain name to a local ip.

However, we can expose a http or https service using frp.

1. Modify frps.ini, configure http port 8080:

# frps.ini
[common]
bind_port = 7000
vhost_http_port = 8080

2. Start frps:

./frps -c ./frps.ini

3. Modify frpc.ini and set remote frps server's IP as x.x.x.x. The local_port is the port of your web service:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[web]
type = http
local_port = 80
custom_domains = www.yourdomain.com

4. Start frpc:

./frpc -c ./frpc.ini

5. Resolve A record of www.yourdomain.com to IP x.x.x.x or CNAME record to your origin domain.

6. Now visit your local web service using url http://www.yourdomain.com:8080.

Forward DNS query request

1. Modify frps.ini:

# frps.ini
[common]
bind_port = 7000

2. Start frps:

./frps -c ./frps.ini

3. Modify frpc.ini, set remote frps's server IP as x.x.x.x, forward dns query request to google dns server 8.8.8.8:53:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[dns]
type = udp
local_ip = 8.8.8.8
local_port = 53
remote_port = 6000

4. Start frpc:

./frpc -c ./frpc.ini

5. Send dns query request by dig:

dig @x.x.x.x -p 6000 www.google.com

Forward unix domain socket

Using tcp port to connect unix domain socket like docker daemon.

Configure frps same as above.

1. Start frpc with configurations:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[unix_domain_socket]
type = tcp
remote_port = 6000
plugin = unix_domain_socket
plugin_unix_path = /var/run/docker.sock

2. Get docker version by curl command:

curl http://x.x.x.x:6000/version

Expose a simple http file server

A simple way to visit files in the LAN.

Configure frps same as above.

1. Start frpc with configurations:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[test_static_file]
type = tcp
remote_port = 6000
plugin = static_file
plugin_local_path = /tmp/file
plugin_strip_prefix = static
plugin_http_user = abc
plugin_http_passwd = abc

2. Visit http://x.x.x.x:6000/static/ by your browser, set correct user and password, so you can see files in /tmp/file.

Expose your service in security

For some services, if expose them to the public network directly will be a security risk.

stcp(secret tcp) help you create a proxy avoiding any one can access it.

Configure frps same as above.

1. Start frpc, forward ssh port and remote_port is useless:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[secret_ssh]
type = stcp
sk = abcdefg
local_ip = 127.0.0.1
local_port = 22

2. Start another frpc in which you want to connect this ssh server:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[secret_ssh_visitor]
type = stcp
role = visitor
server_name = secret_ssh
sk = abcdefg
bind_addr = 127.0.0.1
bind_port = 6000

3. Connect to server in LAN by ssh assuming that username is test:

ssh -oPort=6000 test@127.0.0.1

P2P Mode

xtcp is designed for transmitting a large amount of data directly between two client.

Now it can't penetrate all types of NAT devices. You can try stcp if xtcp doesn't work.

1. Configure a udp port for xtcp:

bind_udp_port = 7001

2. Start frpc, forward ssh port and remote_port is useless:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[p2p_ssh]
type = xtcp
sk = abcdefg
local_ip = 127.0.0.1
local_port = 22

3. Start another frpc in which you want to connect this ssh server:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000

[p2p_ssh_visitor]
type = xtcp
role = visitor
server_name = p2p_ssh
sk = abcdefg
bind_addr = 127.0.0.1
bind_port = 6000

4. Connect to server in LAN by ssh assuming that username is test:

ssh -oPort=6000 test@127.0.0.1

Features

Configuration File

You can find features which this document not metioned from full example configuration files.

frps full configuration file

frpc full configuration file

Dashboard

Check frp's status and proxies's statistics information by Dashboard.

Configure a port for dashboard to enable this feature:

[common]
dashboard_port = 7500
# dashboard's username and password are both optional，if not set, default is admin.
dashboard_user = admin
dashboard_pwd = admin

Then visit http://[server_addr]:7500 to see dashboard, default username and password are both admin.

Authentication

Since v0.10.0, you only need to set token in frps.ini and frpc.ini.

Note that time duration between server of frpc and frps mustn't exceed 15 minutes because timestamp is used for authentication.

Howerver, this timeout duration can be modified by setting authentication_timeout in frps's configure file. It's defalut value is 900, means 15 minutes. If it is equals 0, then frps will not check authentication timeout.

Encryption and Compression

Defalut value is false, you could decide if the proxy will use encryption or compression:

# frpc.ini
[ssh]
type = tcp
local_port = 22
remote_port = 6000
use_encryption = true
use_compression = true

Hot-Reload frpc configuration

First you need to set admin port in frpc's configure file to let it provide HTTP API for more features.

# frpc.ini
[common]
admin_addr = 127.0.0.1
admin_port = 7400

Then run command frpc reload -c ./frpc.ini and wait for about 10 seconds to let frpc create or update or delete proxies.

Note that parameters in [common] section won't be modified except 'start' now.

Get proxy status from client

Use frpc status -c ./frpc.ini to get status of all proxies. You need to set admin port in frpc's configure file.

Port White List

allow_ports in frps.ini is used for preventing abuse of ports:

# frps.ini
[common]
allow_ports = 2000-3000,3001,3003,4000-50000

allow_ports consists of a specific port or a range of ports divided by ,.

Port Reuse

Now vhost_http_port and vhost_https_port in frps can use same port with bind_port. frps will detect connection's protocol and handle it correspondingly.

We would like to try to allow multiple proxies bind a same remote port with different protocols in the future.

TCP Stream Multiplexing

frp support tcp stream multiplexing since v0.10.0 like HTTP2 Multiplexing. All user requests to same frpc can use only one tcp connection.

You can disable this feature by modify frps.ini and frpc.ini:

# frps.ini and frpc.ini, must be same
[common]
tcp_mux = false

Support KCP Protocol

frp support kcp protocol since v0.12.0.

KCP is a fast and reliable protocol that can achieve the transmission effect of a reduction of the average latency by 30% to 40% and reduction of the maximum delay by a factor of three, at the cost of 10% to 20% more bandwidth wasted than TCP.

Using kcp in frp:

1. Enable kcp protocol in frps:

# frps.ini
[common]
bind_port = 7000
# kcp needs to bind a udp port, it can be same with 'bind_port'
kcp_bind_port = 7000

2. Configure the protocol used in frpc to connect frps:

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
# specify the 'kcp_bind_port' in frps
server_port = 7000
protocol = kcp

Connection Pool

By default, frps send message to frpc for create a new connection to backward service when getting an user request.If a proxy's connection pool is enabled, there will be a specified number of connections pre-established.

This feature is fit for a large number of short connections.

1. Configure the limit of pool count each proxy can use in frps.ini:

# frps.ini
[common]
max_pool_count = 5

2. Enable and specify the number of connection pool:

# frpc.ini
[common]
pool_count = 1

Load balancing

Load balancing is supported by group. This feature is available only for type tcp now.

# frpc.ini
[test1]
type = tcp
local_port = 8080
remote_port = 80
group = web
group_key = 123

[test2]
type = tcp
local_port = 8081
remote_port = 80
group = web
group_key = 123

group_key is used for authentication.

Proxies in same group will accept connections from port 80 randomly.

Rewriting the Host Header

When forwarding to a local port, frp does not modify the tunneled HTTP requests at all, they are copied to your server byte-for-byte as they are received. Some application servers use the Host header for determining which development site to display. For this reason, frp can rewrite your requests with a modified host header. Use the host_header_rewrite switch to rewrite incoming HTTP requests.

# frpc.ini
[web]
type = http
local_port = 80
custom_domains = test.yourdomain.com
host_header_rewrite = dev.yourdomain.com

If host_header_rewrite is specified, the host header will be rewritten to match the hostname portion of the forwarding address.

Set Headers In HTTP Request

You can set headers for proxy which type is http.

# frpc.ini
[web]
type = http
local_port = 80
custom_domains = test.yourdomain.com
host_header_rewrite = dev.yourdomain.com
header_X-From-Where = frp

Note that params which have prefix header_ will be added to http request headers. In this example, it will set header X-From-Where: frp to http request.

Get Real IP

Features for http proxy only.

You can get user's real IP from http request header X-Forwarded-For and X-Real-IP.

Note that now you can only get these two headers in first request of each user connection.

Password protecting your web service

Anyone who can guess your tunnel URL can access your local web server unless you protect it with a password.

This enforces HTTP Basic Auth on all requests with the username and password you specify in frpc's configure file.

It can only be enabled when proxy type is http.

# frpc.ini
[web]
type = http
local_port = 80
custom_domains = test.yourdomain.com
http_user = abc
http_passwd = abc

Visit http://test.yourdomain.com and now you need to input username and password.

Custom subdomain names

It is convenient to use subdomain configure for http、https type when many people use one frps server together.

# frps.ini
subdomain_host = frps.com

Resolve *.frps.com to the frps server's IP.

# frpc.ini
[web]
type = http
local_port = 80
subdomain = test

Now you can visit your web service by host test.frps.com.

Note that if subdomain_host is not empty, custom_domains should not be the subdomain of subdomain_host.

URL routing

frp support forward http requests to different backward web services by url routing.

locations specify the prefix of URL used for routing. frps first searches for the most specific prefix location given by literal strings regardless of the listed order.

# frpc.ini
[web01]
type = http
local_port = 80
custom_domains = web.yourdomain.com
locations = /

[web02]
type = http
local_port = 81
custom_domains = web.yourdomain.com
locations = /news,/about

Http requests with url prefix /news and /about will be forwarded to web02 and others to web01.

Connect frps by HTTP PROXY

frpc can connect frps using HTTP PROXY if you set os environment HTTP_PROXY or configure http_proxy param in frpc.ini file.

It only works when protocol is tcp.

# frpc.ini
[common]
server_addr = x.x.x.x
server_port = 7000
http_proxy = http://user:pwd@192.168.1.128:8080

Range ports mapping

Proxy name has prefix range: will support mapping range ports.

# frpc.ini
[range:test_tcp]
type = tcp
local_ip = 127.0.0.1
local_port = 6000-6006,6007
remote_port = 6000-6006,6007

frpc will generate 8 proxies like test_tcp_0, test_tcp_1 ... test_tcp_7.

Plugin

frpc only forward request to local tcp or udp port by default.

Plugin is used for providing rich features. There are built-in plugins such as unix_domain_socket, http_proxy, socks5, static_file and you can see example usage.

Specify which plugin to use by plugin parameter. Configuration parameters of plugin should be started with plugin_. local_ip and local_port is useless for plugin.

Using plugin http_proxy:

# frpc.ini
[http_proxy]
type = tcp
remote_port = 6000
plugin = http_proxy
plugin_http_user = abc
plugin_http_passwd = abc

plugin_http_user and plugin_http_passwd are configuration parameters used in http_proxy plugin.

Development Plan

• Log http request information in frps.
• Direct reverse proxy, like haproxy.
• kubernetes ingress support.

Contributing

Interested in getting involved? We would like to help you!

• Take a look at our issues list and consider sending a Pull Request to dev branch.
• If you want to add a new feature, please create an issue first to describe the new feature, as well as the implementation approach. Once a proposal is accepted, create an implementation of the new features and submit it as a pull request.
• Sorry for my poor english and improvement for this document is welcome even some typo fix.
• If you have some wonderful ideas, send email to fatedier@gmail.com.

Note: We prefer you to give your advise in issues, so others with a same question can search it quickly and we don't need to answer them repeatly.

Donation

If frp help you a lot, you can support us by:

frp QQ group: 606194980

AliPay

Wechat Pay

Paypal

Donate money by paypal to my account fatedier@gmail.com.