Use https://github.com/shadowsocks/go-shadowsocks2 instead.

Current version: 1.2.2

shadowsocks-go is a lightweight tunnel proxy which can help you get through firewalls. It is a port of shadowsocks.

The protocol is compatible with the origin shadowsocks (if both have been upgraded to the latest version).

Note server_password option syntax changed in 0.6.2, the client now connects to servers in the order specified in the config.

Please develop on the latest develop branch if you want to send pull request.

Download precompiled binarys from the release page. (All compiled with cgo disabled, except the mac version.)

You can also install from source (assume you have go installed):

# on server
go get github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks-go/cmd/shadowsocks-server
# on client
go get github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks-go/cmd/shadowsocks-local

It's recommended to disable cgo when compiling shadowsocks-go. This will prevent the go runtime from creating too many threads for dns lookup.

Both the server and client program will look for config.json in the current directory. You can use -c option to specify another configuration file.

Configuration file is in json format and has the same syntax with shadowsocks-nodejs. You can download the sample config.json, change the following values:

server          your server ip or hostname
server_port     server port
local_port      local socks5 proxy port
method          encryption method, null by default (table), the following methods are supported:
                    aes-128-cfb, aes-192-cfb, aes-256-cfb, bf-cfb, cast5-cfb, des-cfb, rc4-md5, rc4-md5-6, chacha20, salsa20, rc4, table
password        a password used to encrypt transfer
timeout         server option, in seconds

Run shadowsocks-server on your server. To run it in the background, run shadowsocks-server > log &.

On client, run shadowsocks-local. Change proxy settings of your browser to

SOCKS5 127.0.0.1:local_port

AES is recommended for shadowsocks-go. Intel AES Instruction Set will be used if available and can make encryption/decryption very fast. To be more specific, aes-128-cfb is recommended as it is faster and secure enough.

rc4 and table encryption methods are deprecated because they are not secure.

OTA function is deprecated because it is reported to have potential security risk.

Command line options can override settings from configuration files. Use -h option to see all available options.

shadowsocks-local -s server_address -p server_port -k password
    -m aes-128-cfb -c config.json
    -b local_address -l local_port
shadowsocks-server -p server_port -k password
    -m aes-128-cfb -c config.json
    -t timeout

Use -d option to enable debug message.

server_password    specify multiple server and password, server should be in the form of host:port

Here's a sample configuration client-multi-server.json. Given server_password, client program will ignore server_port, server and password options.

Servers are chosen in the order specified in the config. If a server can't be connected (connection failure), the client will try the next one. (Client will retry failed server with some probability to discover server recovery.)

The server can support users with different passwords. Each user will be served by a unique port. Use the following options on the server for such setup:

port_password   specify multiple ports and passwords to support multiple users

Here's a sample configuration server-multi-port.json. Given port_password, server program will ignore server_port and password options.

Edit the config file used to start the server, then send SIGHUP to the server process.

Use OpenVZ VM that supports vswap. Otherwise, the OS will incorrectly account much more memory than actually used. shadowsocks-go on OpenVZ VM with vswap takes about 3MB memory after startup. (Refer to this issue for more details.)

If vswap is not an option and memory usage is a problem for you, try shadowsocks-libev.