Socat Proxy

A lightweight Docker container that creates a UNIX socket proxy to TCP connections using socat and Alpine Linux.

🚀 Features

• Lightweight: Based on Alpine Linux (~10-15MB image)
• Configurable: Environment variable driven configuration
• Socket Management: Automatic UNIX socket creation and cleanup
• Production Ready: Includes proper error handling and logging
• Multi-variant: Standard and minimal Docker images available

📋 Use Cases example

• Proxy Docker socket from a docker proxy to a container in host mode

🛠️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description	Example
TARGET_HOST	-	Target hostname/IP to proxy to	socket-proxy-beszel
TARGET_PORT	-	Target port to proxy to	2375
UNIX_SOCKET_PATH	-	Path to UNIX socket inside container	/socket/docker.sock
SOCKET_PATH	-	Host path for socket mounting	/your/container/sock/

🚢 Quick Start

Using Docker Compose (Recommended)

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://git.djeex.fr/Djeex/socat-proxy
cd socat-proxy

2. Configure environment variables in .env file:

TARGET_HOST= #  Target hostname/IP to proxy to
TARGET_PORT= # Target port to proxy to
UNIX_SOCKET_PATH= # Path to UNIX socket inside container
HOST_SOCKET_PATH= # Host path for socket mounting

3. Start the service:

docker-compose up -d

Using Docker Run

docker build -t socat-proxy .

docker run -d \
  --name socat-proxy \
  -e TARGET_HOST=your-target-host \
  -e TARGET_PORT=your-target-port \
  -e UNIX_SOCKET_PATH=your-unix-socket-path \
  -e HOST_SOCKET_PATH=your-socket-host-path \
  -v /your-origin-socket-path:/socket \
  socat-proxy

🔧 How It Works

1. Socket Check: Verifies if UNIX socket exists at startup
2. Cleanup: Removes existing socket file/folder if present
3. Socket Creation: Creates new UNIX socket using nc -lU
4. Proxy Start: Starts socat to proxy UNIX socket to TCP endpoint