Install Caddy on Linux

Table of Contents

Download binary #

Download the latest binary in .tar.gz archive from GitHub Releases: https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/latest

wget "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/download/v2.7.6/caddy_2.7.6_linux_amd64.tar.gz"

Verify Checksum #

wget "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/download/v2.7.6/caddy_2.7.6_checksums.txt"

sha512sum --ignore-missing -c "caddy_2.7.6_checksums.txt"

Verify Signature #

See Caddy’s documentation how to verify the signature.

Extract the binary #

Extract the binary from the downloaded archive:

tar -xf "caddy_2.7.6_linux_amd64.tar.gz caddy"

Install the binary #

Use the install command to copy the binary to /usr/local/bin/ and set attributes:

sudo install -v caddy /usr/bin/

Create user and group #

Create the group first:

sudo groupadd --system caddy

Create the caddy user:

sudo useradd --system --gid="caddy" --create-home  --home-dir="/var/lib/caddy" --shell="/usr/sbin/nologin" caddy

Create Caddyfile #

Create the directory for the Caddyfile:

mkdir "/etc/caddy"

Now, create the Caddyfile:

touch "/etc/caddy/Caddyfile"

Change the user and group of the config directory:

chown -R caddy:caddy /etc/caddy/

Configure systemd #

Create the systemd service:

nano /etc/systemd/system/caddy.service

[Unit]
Description=Caddy
After=network.target network-online.target
Requires=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
User=caddy
Group=caddy
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
ExecStart=/usr/bin/caddy run --environ --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
ExecReload=/usr/bin/caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile --force
TimeoutStopSec=5s
LimitNOFILE=1048576
PrivateTmp=true
ProtectSystem=full
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_ADMIN CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd to load the new service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable the service to start at boot:

sudo systemctl enable --now caddy