How it works

Overview

This article explains how apisix-java-plugin-runner collaborate with Apache APISIX to run plugins written in java.

Run Mode

apisix-java-plugin-runner can be run alone or bundled with Apache APISIX. It depends on whether you need to debug it or run it.

Debug

If you are developing a new plugin and need to debug the code, then you can run the main class PluginRunnerApplication, and before start, you need to set the following two environment variables:

• APISIX_LISTEN_ADDRESS: apisix-java-plugin-runner and APISIX for inter-process communication (Unix Domain Socket) socket type file address. And do not need to actively create this file, apisix-java-plugin-runner will automatically create this file when it starts.
• APISIX_CONF_EXPIRE_TIME: the time that APISIX's configuration is cached in the apisix-java-plugin-runner process.

For example, if you start apisix-java-plugin-runner as a jar package, pass the environment variables as below

java -jar -DAPISIX_LISTEN_ADDRESS=unix:/tmp/runner.sock -DAPISIX_CONF_EXPIRE_TIME=3600 /path/to/apisix-java-plugin-runner.jar

Note: Refer to apisix-java-plugin-runner.jar to get it.

and add the following configure in the config.yaml file of APISIX

ext-plugin:
  path_for_test: /tmp/runner.sock

The /tmp/runner.sock is the address of the file where apisix-java-plugin-runner and APISIX communicate between processes and must be consistent.

Note: If you see some error logs like

phase_func(): failed to connect to the unix socket unix:/tmp/runner.sock: permission denied

in the error.log of APISIX, you can change the permissions of this file for debug, execute commands like

chmod 755 /tmp/runner.sock

To get more detailed debugging information, you can modify the output level of the log. Configure the log level in runner-starter/src/main/resources/application.yaml, as below (any changes to the project files need to be re-executed ./mvnw package package)

logging:
  level:
    root: debug

Run

No environment variables need to be set in Run mode, execute

cd /path/to/apisix-java-plugin-runner
 ./mvnw package

to built apisix-java-plugin-runner as a jar package, then you will see the dist directory, execute

cd dist
tar -zxvf apache-apisix-runner-bin.tar.gz

the layout of files in the dist directory is as below

dist
├── apache-apisix-runner-bin.tar.gz
└── apisix-runner-bin
    ├── apisix-java-plugin-runner.jar
    ├── bin
    │   ├── shutdown.sh
    │   └── startup.sh
    ├── LICENSE
    ├── NOTICE
    └── README.md

then add the following configure in the config.yaml file of APISIX

ext-plugin:
  cmd: ['java', '-jar', '-Xmx4g', '-Xms4g', '/path/to/apisix-runner-bin/apisix-java-plugin-runner.jar']