When do I use a reverse proxy vs standard http request?

<p>I am a bit new to Go and understand what a reverse proxy is but when is it appropriate to use it vs a standard request and get the url that way? Specifically, when should I use <a href="https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/httputil/#ReverseProxy" rel="nofollow">https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/httputil/#ReverseProxy</a>?</p> <p>In my case I am just retrieving a url for a user - no credentials are being passed, no headers being forwarded, etc. (Also, I have only a single server I am requesting resources from so no need for load balancing, etc). Are there any benefits of using a reverse proxy in this case? </p> <hr/>**评论：**<br/><br/>9nut: <pre><p>The <em>Client</em> type in http package is all that&#39;s needed. There is a full example in the http package: <a href="https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#example_Get" rel="nofollow">https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#example_Get</a></p> <p>For more insight, check the source code for <em>Get</em> function in http package; you&#39;ll notice it uses the <em>DefaultClient</em> which is an instance of <em>Client</em></p></pre>carsncode: <pre><p>I think you may misunderstand the purpose of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_proxy" rel="nofollow">reverse proxy</a> - if you&#39;re on the client end, you&#39;re not talking about a reverse proxy at all, which sits at the server end. You&#39;re talking about a normal forward proxy. Load balancing, etc would generally be handled by a reverse proxy on the server side, not by anything on the client side.</p> <p>If you&#39;re receiving HTTP requests and forwarding them somewhere else, then you are acting as a proxy. If requests are initiated some other way (e.g., user runs your program, which makes an HTTP call; or you receive an HTTP request, and in the course of some processing, you must make a call out), then you are not acting as a proxy, you are acting as the client.</p></pre>WikiTextBot: <pre><p><strong>Reverse proxy</strong></p> <p>In computer networks, a reverse proxy is a type of proxy server that retrieves resources on behalf of a client from one or more servers. These resources are then returned to the client like they originated from the Web server itself. Contrary to a forward proxy, which is an intermediary for its associated clients to contact any server, a reverse proxy is an intermediary for its associated servers to be contacted by any client.</p> <p>Quite often, popular web servers use reverse-proxying functionality, shielding application frameworks of weaker HTTP capabilities.</p> <hr/> <p>^[ <a href="https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space" rel="nofollow">^PM</a> ^| <a href="https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&amp;message=Excludeme&amp;subject=Excludeme" rel="nofollow">^Exclude ^me</a> ^| <a href="https://np.reddit.com/r/golang/about/banned" rel="nofollow">^Exclude ^from ^subreddit</a> ^| <a href="https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index" rel="nofollow">^FAQ ^/ ^Information</a> ^| <a href="https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot" rel="nofollow">^Source</a> ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.24</p></pre>adamtanner: <pre><p>What are you returning to the user for the URL requested on their behalf? Are you generating the request to the downstream server or passing along the request you received?</p> <p>If you&#39;re passing the unmodified/slightly modified request you received directly to the downstream server and returning the unmodified/slightly modified response you probably want a reverse proxy. If it&#39;s something else then probably not.</p></pre>notsoobadusername: <pre><p>It&#39;s just a .jpg image. Returning the image and nothing else.</p></pre>adamtanner: <pre><p>Okay, then it&#39;s probably sufficient to do something like the following in your handler:</p> <pre><code>res, err := http.Get(&#34;http://example.com/image.jpg&#34;) if err != nil { ... } defer res.Body.Close() io.Copy(rw, res.Body) </code></pre></pre>mcouturier: <pre><p>I would still use a reverse proxy.</p> <p>You get the expiring headers, content type and such. You&#39;ll also get the return code for free in case of a 404...</p> <p>Unless you want a completely new set of headers.</p></pre>a_k_w: <pre><p>reverse proxy can be used as a load balancer, cache, validator/hardener, gateway.</p></pre>