The current CacheBrowser software is a research prototype implementation, and is not yet ready for end-users. If you are a researcher or developer check it out and give us feedback, otherwise please be patient while we work on an end-user version of the code. Thanks for your understanding and support!
python setup.py install
To run the CacheBrowser process simply enter the cachebrowser command
cachebrowser
You can then use CacheBrowser by setting the HTTP proxy on your browser to localhost:8080
In order to be able to browse a page using CacheBrowser, the page must first be bootstrapped. What this means is that CacheBrowser must first find out what CDN the page is hosted on and also obtain some edge server addresses for that CDN.
In the long run we plan on providing a remote Bootstrapping Server which CacheBrowser contacts to gain bootstrapping information. For now though, bootstrapping can be done using local bootstrapping files provided to CacheBrowser.
A local bootstrapping file is a YAML file containing a list of Host or CDN information.
For example:
- type: cdn
id: akamai
name: Akamai
edge_servers:
- 23.208.91.198
- 23.218.210.7
- type: host
name: www.nbc.com
ssl: false
cdn: akamai
- type: host
name: www.bloomberg.com
ssl: false
cdn: akamai
For each CDN provided in the bootstrapping file the following information should be provided:
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| type | cdn |
| id | A unique ID to be used for the CDN |
| name | The CDN Name |
| edge_servers | List of edge server addresses for the CDN |
For each Host provided in the bootstrapping file the following information should be provided:
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| type | host |
| name | The hostname |
| cdn | The ID of the CDN which provides this host |
| ssl | Whether the pages supports HTTPS connections or not |
CacheBrowser uses the local bootstrapping file here by default. To provide more bootstrapping files to CacheBrowser, run it with the -b option.
cachebrowser -b /path/to/localbootstrap.yaml
You could also run a command with CacheBrowser:
cachebrowser <command>
These are the valid commands you could give:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| bootstrap | Bootstrap |
get url [target] |
Retrieve url using CacheBrowser. If target is specified CacheBrowser uses the given target. If not, CacheBrowser uses the bootstrapped target if the host has been bootstrapped or makes a normal request to the host if not. |
| list hosts | Lists the bootstrapped hosts |
| list cdn | Lists the CDNs used for the bootstrapped hosts |
cachebrowser bootstrap www.nbc.com
cachebrowser get http://www.nbc.com
cachebrowser get https://www.istockphoto.com 69.31.76.91