Kubernetes Ingress

KubernetesIngressWatcher watches the Kubernetes API server for Ingress resources and maintains a live route table in memory. IngressRouter implements Application and uses that table to forward requests to the correct upstream service.

How it works

1. KubernetesIngressWatcher does a full GET /apis/networking.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/{ns}/ingresses on an interval (default 30 s, configurable) as a resync safety net, and opens a long-lived ?watch=true streaming connection alongside it — any ADDED/MODIFIED/DELETED event on that stream triggers an immediate re-list instead of waiting for the next interval. On a quiet cluster the watch connection just sits blocked on a read, costing nothing; if the API server doesn’t support watch for some reason, the interval resync alone keeps things working, just at up-to-30s latency instead of near-instant.
2. Each Ingress rule is parsed into an IngressRule containing host, path, path_type, service_name, service_port, and namespace.
3. IngressRouter matches incoming requests (host header + path, per path_type — see Path matching) against the live rule table and proxies to {service_name}.{namespace}.svc.cluster.local:{service_port} over HTTP/1.1.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Example	Description
RWS_K8S_API_SERVER	Yes (for from_env())	http://localhost:8001	Base URL of the Kubernetes API (plain HTTP)
RWS_K8S_TOKEN	No	eyJhbGci…	Bearer token for API authentication
RWS_K8S_NAMESPACE	No	production	Namespace to watch (default: default; use all for all namespaces)

Two ways to reach the API server

from_env() talks plain http:// to the Kubernetes API — the simplest option, and the only one that needs no extra Cargo feature. The recommended setup for local development or a sidecar is kubectl proxy:

kubectl proxy &
export RWS_K8S_API_SERVER=http://localhost:8001
export RWS_K8S_TOKEN=
export RWS_K8S_NAMESPACE=default

For a pod that wants to talk to the in-cluster API server directly — no sidecar — use from_service_account() instead, which connects over TLS to https://kubernetes.default.svc and requires the http-client or http2 feature.

Quick start

use rust_web_server::ingress::{IngressRouter, KubernetesIngressWatcher};
use rust_web_server::server::Server;

fn main() {
    let watcher = KubernetesIngressWatcher::from_env()
        .expect("Set RWS_K8S_API_SERVER before starting");
    watcher.start(); // spawns background polling thread

    let app = IngressRouter::new(watcher);
    let (listener, pool) = Server::setup().unwrap();
    Server::run(listener, pool, app);
}

Configuration options

let watcher = KubernetesIngressWatcher::from_env()
    .unwrap()
    .namespace("production")     // override namespace
    .ingress_class("rws")        // only watch Ingress objects with spec.ingressClassName: rws
    .poll_interval_secs(15);     // resync every 15 s instead of 30 (watch still runs alongside)

let app = IngressRouter::new(watcher)
    .connect_timeout_ms(2_000)  // TCP connect to upstream (default 5 000 ms)
    .read_timeout_ms(60_000);   // response read timeout   (default 30 000 ms)

IngressClass filtering

On a single-controller cluster, .ingress_class(...) doesn’t need to be set — the watcher picks up every Ingress object regardless of spec.ingressClassName by default, matching the pre-filtering behavior this crate has always had. On a multi-controller cluster (e.g. rws running alongside nginx-ingress), set .ingress_class("rws") so this watcher only builds routes from Ingress objects meant for it — an Ingress with no ingressClassName at all never matches a configured filter, so it needs one explicitly to be picked up.

Path matching

IngressRule::matches implements the two Kubernetes pathType values that carry real routing semantics:

• If host is non-empty, the incoming Host header must match (case-insensitive).
• Any query string on the request URI is ignored for path matching.
• Prefix (the default when pathType is absent, and how ImplementationSpecific is also treated) matches on whole path segments, not raw bytes: rule path /foo matches /foo, /foo/, and /foo/bar, but not /foobar.
• Exact requires the request path to equal the rule’s path exactly (ignoring the query string).

The first matching rule wins. Rules are evaluated in the order they are returned by the API server.

Upstream addresses are resolved as:

{service_name}.{namespace}.svc.cluster.local:{service_port}

RBAC requirements

The pod’s service account needs read access to Ingress resources. Apply the following manifests:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: rws-ingress
  namespace: default
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: rws-ingress-reader
rules:
  - apiGroups: ["networking.k8s.io"]
    resources: ["ingresses"]
    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: rws-ingress-reader
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: rws-ingress-reader
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: rws-ingress
    namespace: default

Deployment example

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: rws-ingress-controller
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: rws-ingress-controller
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: rws-ingress-controller
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: rws-ingress
      containers:
        - name: rws
          image: your-registry/rust-web-server:latest
          ports:
            - containerPort: 7878
          env:
            - name: RWS_K8S_API_SERVER
              value: "http://localhost:8001"
            - name: RWS_K8S_TOKEN
              value: ""
            - name: RWS_K8S_NAMESPACE
              value: "default"
        # kubectl proxy sidecar exposes the API over plain HTTP
        - name: kubectl-proxy
          image: bitnami/kubectl:latest
          args: ["proxy", "--port=8001", "--address=127.0.0.1"]

Connecting directly from inside a pod

from_service_account() (requires the http-client or http2 feature — both already pull in rustls) reads the token, namespace, and CA certificate from the files Kubernetes mounts into every pod at /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/, and finds the API server via the KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST/KUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT environment variables every pod also has injected automatically — the same mechanism every other Kubernetes client library uses. No kubectl proxy sidecar needed:

use rust_web_server::ingress::{IngressRouter, KubernetesIngressWatcher};

let watcher = KubernetesIngressWatcher::from_service_account()
    .expect("not running inside a pod, or the http-client/http2 feature isn't enabled");
watcher.start();

let app = IngressRouter::new(watcher);

The connection is TLS, trusting only the cluster’s own CA certificate (.../ca.crt) — not the public root store http_client uses elsewhere in this crate, since the API server’s certificate is signed by that private, cluster-specific CA. Building without the http-client/http2 feature leaves from_service_account() returning a clear error pointing back at the kubectl proxy + from_env() path above, rather than silently failing at connect time.

[dependencies]
rust-web-server = { version = "17", features = ["http-client"] }