Working config for gun websocket client

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Just leaving some breadcrumbs for future me and future others like me.

Connect with TCP (not secured) - most servers will reject but useful for localhost, etc.

connect_opts =
      %{
        connect_timeout: 60000,
        retry: 10,
        retry_timeout: 300,
        transport: :tcp,
        # Specify :http or :http2 to tell the server what you'd like. Support for http 2  is not great generally
        protocols: [:http],
        # Tell the server which version to use. Note: this is an atom.
        http_opts: %{version: :"HTTP/1.1"}
      }

Connect with TLS/SSH but you don’t care to verify the host

connect_opts,
    do:
      %{
        connect_timeout: 60000,
        retry: 10,
        retry_timeout: 300,
        transport: :tls,
        tls_opts: [
          verify: :verify_none,
          # Specify a bunch of certs
          cacerts: :certifi.cacerts(),
          # Or just one cert
          # cacertfile: CAStore.file_path(),
          depth: 99,
          reuse_sessions: false
        ],
        # See above explanation why you should specify
        http_opts: %{version: :"HTTP/1.1"},
        protocols: [:http],
      }

Using TLS/SSH and you want to verify the host

connect_opts = %{
        connect_timeout: 60000,
        retry: 10,
        retry_timeout: 300,
        transport: :tls,
        tls_opts: [
          verify: :verify_peer,
          cacerts: :certifi.cacerts(),
          # cacertfile: CAStore.file_path(),
          depth: 99,
          server_name_indication: 'example.com',
          reuse_sessions: false,
          verify_fun: {&:ssl_verify_hostname.verify_fun/3, [check_hostname: 'example.com']}
        ],
        http_opts: %{version: :"HTTP/1.1"},
        protocols: [:http]
      }

For :certifi and CAStore you may need to install these libs if they are not already in use in your project.

Use like

{:ok, gun_pid} = :gun.open('ws.example.com', 443, connect_opts)
# Wait for gun to be up - equivalent to :gun_up message
{:ok, http_version} = :gun.await_up(gun_pid)
# Put gun_pid and stream_ref in state to match on incoming messages
stream_ref = :gun.ws_upgrade(gun_pid, path(), headers()) |> IO.inspect()

Elsewhere monitor for the upgrade message. If you’re using a GenServer this will land in handle_info.

def handle_info({:gun_upgrade, gun_pid, stream_ref, stuff, headers}, %{gun_pid: gun_pid, stream_ref: stream_ref} = state) do
  # Now the websocket is upgraded and can send and receive
  :gun.ws_send(gun_pid, stream_ref, {:text, "Hello Server"})
  {:noreply, state}
end

If you’re using a GenServer the rest of the messages from gun will land in other handle_infos so make a clause for each one you want to handle.

This should also work for libs that use gun such as glock.

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Have you thought about putting together a tiny library for this that just provides a couple functions for creating sane connect_opts for the couple of different scenarios you’ve listed? Might be more readily discoverable via Hex than this forum post in the long run.

3

There’s already glock which I was going to do a PR for. I might do that.

I was also thinking about doing my own take on it but those ideas are still percolating.

I was trying to use glock but then I was getting a bit frustrated with why it wasn’t working so I just resorted to gun which is actually fine once you know what it’s doing. I would want whatever lib I made to be more useful than just making :gun into Gun.

For example I’m not sure it’s actually beneficial obscuring the websocket upgrade as that is kind of important. That’s part of what I like about gun is it gives you access to the guts of what’s happening and gives you the option to react to it.

I’m thinking whatever lib I’d make would be paired with the user’s genserver and report back each of the stages.

2 Likes
4

This is super useful! Thank you

5

I made a PR for glock. Hopefully it will be merged soon.

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