Quickstart: Quilkin with netcat

Requirements

1. Start an udp echo service

So that we have a target for sending UDP packets to, let's use ncat to create a simple UDP echo process.

To do this run:

ncat -e $(which cat) -k -u -l 8000

This routes all UDP packets that ncat receives to the local cat process, which echoes it back.

2. Start Quilkin

Next let's configure Quilkin to with a static configuration that points at the UDP echo service we just started.

quilkin run --to localhost:8000

This configuration will start Quilkin on the default port of 7000, and it will redirect all incoming UDP traffic to a single endpoint of 127.0.0.1, port 8000.

You should see an output like the following:

{"msg":"Starting Quilkin","level":"INFO","ts":"2021-04-25T19:27:22.535174615-07:00","source":"run","version":"0.1.0-dev"}
{"msg":"Starting","level":"INFO","ts":"2021-04-25T19:27:22.535315827-07:00","source":"server::Server","port":7000}
{"msg":"Starting admin endpoint","level":"INFO","ts":"2021-04-25T19:27:22.535550572-07:00","source":"proxy::Admin","address":"[::]:9091"}

3. Send a packet!

In (yet 😃) another shell, let's use netcat to send an udp packet.

Run the following to connect netcat to Quilkin's receiving port of 7000 via UDP (-u):

nc -u 127.0.0.1 7000

Type the word "test" and hit enter, you should see it echoed back to you like so:

nc -u 127.0.0.1 7000
test
test

Feel free to send even more packets, as many as you would like 👍.

Congratulations! You have successfully routed a UDP packet and back again with Quilkin!

What's next?