diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | blog/big-domain-move.markdown | 125 |
1 files changed, 125 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/blog/big-domain-move.markdown b/blog/big-domain-move.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb2ebe1 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/big-domain-move.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +--- +title: "Site Update: The Big Domain Move To xeiaso.net" +date: 2022-05-28 +tags: + - dns +--- + +Hello all! + +If you take a look in the URL bar of your browser (or on the article URL section +of your feed reader), you should see that there is a new domain name! Welcome to +[xeiaso.net](https://xeiaso.net)! + +Hopefully nothing broke in the process of moving things over, I tried to make +sure that everything would forward over and today I'm going to explain how I did +that. + +I have really good SEO on my NixOS articles, and for my blog in general. I did +not want to risk tanking that SEO when I moved domain names, so I have been +putting this off for the better part of a year. As for why now? I got tired of +internets complaning that the URL was "christine dot website" when I wanted to +be called "Xe". Now you have no excuse. + +So the first step was to be sure that everything got forwarded over to the new +domain. After buying the domain name and setting everything up in Cloudflare +(including moving my paid plan over), I pointed the new domain at my server and +then set up a new NixOS configuration block to have that domain name point to my +site binary: + +```nix +services.nginx.virtualHosts."xeiaso.net" = { + locations."/" = { + proxyPass = "http://unix:${toString cfg.sockPath}"; + proxyWebsockets = true; + }; + forceSSL = cfg.useACME; + useACMEHost = "xeiaso.net"; + extraConfig = '' + access_log /var/log/nginx/xesite.access.log; + ''; +}; +``` + +After that was working, I then got a list of all the things that probably +shouldn't be redirected from. In most cases, most HTTP clients should do the +right thing when getting a permanent redirect to a new URL. However, we live in +a fallen world where we cannot expect clients to do the right thing. Especially +RSS feed readers. + +So I made a list of all the things that I was afraid to make permanent redirects +for and here it is: + +* `/jsonfeed` - a JSONFeed package for Go + ([docs](https://pkg.go.dev/christine.website/jsonfeed)), I didn't want to + break builds by issuing a permanent redirect that would not match the + [go.mod](https://tulpa.dev/Xe/jsonfeed/src/branch/master/go.mod) file. +* `/.within/health` - the healthcheck route used by monitoring. I didn't want to + find out if NodePing blew up on a 301. +* `/.within/website.within.xesite/new_post` - the URL used by the [Android + app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=website.christine.xesite) + widget to let you know when a new post is published. I didn't want to find out + if Android's HTTP library handles redirects properly or not. +* `/blog.rss` - RSS feed readers are badly implemented. I didn't want to find + out if it would break people's feeds entirely. I actually care about people + that read this blog over RSS and I'm sad that poorly written feed readers + punish this server so much. +* `/blog.atom` - See above. +* `/blog.json` - See above. + +Now that I have the list of URLs to not forward, I can finally write the small +bit of Nginx config that will set up permanent forwards (HTTP status code 301) +for every link pointing to the old domain. It will look something like this: + +```nginx +location / { + return 301 https://xeiaso.net$request_uri; +} +``` + +<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">Note that it's using `$request_uri` and +not just `$uri`. If you use `$uri` you run the risk of [CRLF +injection](https://reversebrain.github.io/2021/03/29/The-story-of-Nginx-and-uri-variable/), +which will allow any random attacker to inject HTTP headers into incoming +requests. This is not a good thing to have happen, to say the +least.</xeblog-conv> + +So I wrote a little bit of NixOS config that automatically bridges the gap: + +```nix +services.nginx.virtualHosts."christine.website" = let proxyOld = { + proxyPass = "http://unix:${toString cfg.sockPath}"; + proxyWebsockets = true; + }; in { + locations."/jsonfeed" = proxyOld; + locations."/.within/health" = proxyOld; + locations."/.within/website.within.xesite/new_post" = proxyOld; + locations."/blog.rss" = proxyOld; + locations."/blog.atom" = proxyOld; + locations."/blog.json" = proxyOld; + locations."/".extraConfig = '' + return 301 https://xeiaso.net$request_uri; + ''; + forceSSL = cfg.useACME; + useACMEHost = "christine.website"; + extraConfig = '' + access_log /var/log/nginx/xesite_old.access.log; + ''; +}; +``` + +This will point all the scary paths to the site itself and have +`https://christine.website/whatever` get forwarded to +`https://xeiaso.net/whatever`, this makes sure that every single link that +anyone has ever posted will get properly forwarded. This makes link rot +literally impossible, and helps ensure that I keep my hard-earned SEO. + +I also renamed my email address to `me@xeiaso.net`. Please update your address +books and spam filters accordingly. Also update my name to `Xe Iaso` if you +haven't already. + +I've got some projects in the back burner that will make this blog even better! +Stay tuned and stay frosty. + +What was formerly known as the "christine dot website cinematic universe" is now +known as the "xeiaso dot net cinematic universe". |