Show HN: A simple Pastebin Clone using Deno | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A simple Pastebin Clone using Deno

github.com

58 pointsJLCarveth14 comments

This is a simple Pastebin clone I made using the Deno Typescript runtime.

I created a simple templating system, and implemented server-side rendering for the UI.

I was looking around for a pastebin a while back, and I realized that a self-hosted pastebin is way too much overhead for a simple problem: easily serving possibly-highlighted rich text to people. I already have an editor I like for _writing_, so the problem becomes a matter of hooking into the editor’s syntax highlighting to generate equivalent JavaScript. A quick htmlize + tramp hack later, I could serve my current emacs buffer with the world:

https://fwoar.co/pastebin/3daaf7ce49ca221702c70b0d10ac5caec8...

Sorry for the unrelated question. What theme is used for the syntax highlighted on that snippet?

Looks similar to Solarized Dark.

https://github.com/altercation/solarized

The colors are mostly from zenburn

https://github.com/fiddlerwoaroof/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs...

After reading "A love letter to Deno"[1] I think I might actually start installing deno apps like this one on my home server.

Not only because they would be more secure by default, but also because Deno apps don't seem to need/want to be dockerized. Which means less overhead.

Not sure if it's a cultural thing or just some features of Deno that make Docker less necessary.

[1] https://matklad.github.io/2023/02/12/a-love-letter-to-deno.h...

> Deno apps don't seem to need/want to be dockerized. Which means less overhead.

Why do you say that? I can’t think of any reason a Deno project wouldn’t benefit from Docker more or less any other application. There’s an official Deno Docker image, so I wouldn’t say that not using Docker is a part of Deno culture.

But I could see the single executable being easier to use than Docker if you’re just trying to run a script on a home server!

The original commenter could be referring to Deno's permission system being similar to Docker's sandboxing, which could be true; I am not familiar enough with Docker to confirm that.

Personally, I tend to run my Deno/Node services using simple SystemD services rather than using docker or running the executable as-is.

Nice and clean!

I feel like the biggest issues with pastebins are:

- Data is known by the provider - Not enough economic incentive to keep the pastebin running for a long time (you still need pocket money and some maintenance to keep it running)

Good point and I'm also big on privacy.

But you could extremely easily wrap some End-to-End-Encryption around this, right?

In fact I might just try and do that when I find the time soon.

Before I made the web interface I had been using gpg to encrypt my pastes before sending them.

https://github.com/JLCarveth/nutty/blob/master/client.sh

0bin, another popular Pastebin alternative, solved this problem by encrypting the paste on the client and embedding the key in the paste URL - so the server had no idea about the data being posted.

If the key is just in the URL, what's stopping them from simply obtaining the key out of their access logs and decrypting whatever they want?

Presumably they’re placing it in the # part of the url, which isn’t passed to servers by browsers. Now, of course, the client could still exfiltrate the key with client side JS, but that would be noticeable to anyone that wanted to check.

The biggest issue with pastebins is definitely not that. Look into why most pastebins close doors (hint: people aren’t nice)

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