Shortlinks — CREWS docs

How we built it

Goal: share https://www.championship.technology/2026-WORLDS-PRELIMS.rar while the file still lives at https://crews.championship.technology/clips/2026/WORLDS/PRELIMS.rar. Recipients must keep the short URL in the bar (proxy), not a 302 that reveals the long path.

Deterministic slug — no registry, no per-file Plesk edits. Pattern: /clips/{YEAR}/{NAME}/{file.rar} → {YEAR}-{NAME}-{file.rar}. Example: CRW-X.rar → 2026-WORLDS-CRW-X.rar. Region folder names have no hyphens (WORLDS, USA); filenames may contain hyphens.
CREWS Python — rar_support.py builds/reverses the slug; server.py serves GET /YEAR-NAME-file.rar from clips/YEAR/NAME/file.rar (byte-range capable). Env: CREWS_SHORTLINK_ORIGIN (default https://www.championship.technology).
Extract UI — link icon next to Copy URL copies the short origin URL instantly (no registration step).
Apex nginx (once) — on championship.technology / www, one regex location proxies matching *.rar shortlinks to 127.0.0.1:8765 (same CREWS process as the subdomain).

Layer	Role
Slug math	`rar_support.shortlink_slug_from_clips_public_path` / reverse
Serve short path	`server._try_serve_clip_shortlink`
Copy button	Extract → Clips RAR packages (chain icon)
Apex proxy	`deploy/nginx-championship.technology-shortlinks.conf`
Optional /crews UI	`deploy/nginx-championship.technology-crews.conf`

Plesk strips {4} from \d{4} in Additional nginx directives. Always write four digit classes: [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9].

Nginx — clip shortlinks (paste once)

Plesk → championship.technology → Apache & nginx Settings → Additional nginx directives. Requires CREWS on 127.0.0.1:8765.

# /YEAR-NAME-file.rar → CREWS (address bar stays short)
# Plesk-safe: no {N} quantifiers
location ~ ^/([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])-[^/]+-.+\.rar$ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_request_buffering off;
    proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
    proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
    client_max_body_size 0;
}

Canonical file: deploy/nginx-championship.technology-shortlinks.conf

Nginx — www …/crews UI (optional)

Keeps https://www.championship.technology/crews/… in the bar while proxying to CREWS. Do not set CREWS_PUBLIC_BASE=/crews — the UI auto-detects /crews from the browser path.

location = /crews {
    return 301 /crews/;
}

location /crews/ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765/;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_request_buffering off;
    proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
    proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
    client_max_body_size 0;
}

Canonical file: deploy/nginx-championship.technology-crews.conf

General form — shortlinks with nginx only

You can map any path on crews.championship.technology to a short path on www.championship.technology using only apex nginx (no CREWS slug code). Prefer proxy when the short URL must stay in the address bar; use redirect only when revealing the long URL is acceptable.

A. One-off exact path (proxy — bar stays short)

Map www.championship.technology/SHORTLINK → crews.championship.technology/xxx/yyy/zzz (same machine, CREWS on 8765):

# Example: /PRELIMS.rar → /clips/2026/WORLDS/PRELIMS.rar on CREWS
location = /PRELIMS.rar {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765/clips/2026/WORLDS/PRELIMS.rar;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Host crews.championship.technology;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_request_buffering off;
    proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
    proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
    client_max_body_size 0;
}

Arbitrary path example (/xxx/yyy/zzz → short /SHORTLINK):

location = /SHORTLINK {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765/xxx/yyy/zzz;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Host crews.championship.technology;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_request_buffering off;
    proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
    proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
    client_max_body_size 0;
}

B. One-off redirect (bar becomes long URL)

location = /SHORTLINK {
    return 302 https://crews.championship.technology/xxx/yyy/zzz;
}

C. Many mappings via nginx map

Better than dozens of location = blocks when the set grows. Put the map in a file included from the http context (or Plesk custom template) — Additional directives alone may not allow top-level map depending on Plesk version.

# http { … } context (not always available in Plesk Additional directives)
map $uri $crews_short_target {
    default "";
    /PRELIMS.rar   /clips/2026/WORLDS/PRELIMS.rar;
    /SHORTLINK     /xxx/yyy/zzz;
    /docs-stuck    /docs/extract-stuck-at-100.html;
}

# server / Additional directives:
location / {
    if ($crews_short_target = "") { return 404; }
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765$crews_short_target;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Host crews.championship.technology;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_buffering off;
    client_max_body_size 0;
}

A bare location / that proxies everything will break the main www site. Scope shortlinks to exact paths, a prefix (e.g. /go/), or a regex that only matches your shortlink shape.

D. Prefixed shortlinks (safest for mixed www content)

Keep marketing pages on /; put shareable shorts under /s/:

# www.championship.technology/s/PRELIMS.rar
#   → crews …/clips/2026/WORLDS/PRELIMS.rar
location = /s/PRELIMS.rar {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765/clips/2026/WORLDS/PRELIMS.rar;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Host crews.championship.technology;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_request_buffering off;
    proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
    proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
    client_max_body_size 0;
}

Checklist

Proxy (not 302) if the short URL must stay visible.
Upstream is local CREWS: http://127.0.0.1:8765/… (same OVH box).
Set Host to the crews vhost if the app or nginx on 8765 cares about Host.
Large .rar: disable buffering, long timeouts, client_max_body_size 0.
Plesk: avoid {N} in regex quantifiers in Additional directives.
After paste: Apply → nginx test → hit the short URL once.

Operator — create a clip shortlink

Open Extract → Clips RAR packages.
Select a package under clips/YEAR/NAME/.
Click the chain / short link icon (next to Copy URL).
Share the copied https://www.championship.technology/YEAR-NAME-file.rar.

Root-level or extra-folder packages (not under clips/YEAR/NAME/) cannot use this deterministic pattern; use a general nginx-only mapping (section above) if needed.