HappyGopher Snapshot 072526 Now Available

The HappyGopher main branch snapshot from July 25, 2026 is now available in the Downloads section of this Gopher hole.

This snapshot represents the current stable version of HappyGopher before the latest round of development work. HappyGopher is a small static and dynamic Gopher server written in C# and .NET, designed to run from the console, as a Windows Service, or inside a docker container.

No web framework. No database. No JavaScript. Just a TCP listener, some files, and a protocol from a simpler time.

Development is continuing on the `dev` branch.

Recent work includes proper support for type-7 request input. HappyGopher now separates the requested selector from the user-supplied input and applies independent size limits to each. The selector reader and integration tests were expanded considerably to cover malformed requests, oversized selectors, oversized input, and other edge cases.

The dynamic page system has also been getting more use. HappyGopher can now expose pages backed by the HappyQOTD service, including Quote of the Day and random quote selectors. Telemetry support and additional Mission Control events are also being added.

The current experiment is an optional Gopher guestbook.

The guestbook uses type-7 input and stores entries in an append-only JSON Lines file. I considered SQLite, which would honestly have made querying the newest entries easier, but bringing a database into a Gopher guestbook felt spiritually incorrect.

The storage layer is complete, including serialized access, bounded reads of the newest entries, malformed-record recovery, and configurable storage and display limits. The next step is finishing the pages used to view and sign the guestbook.

The guestbook is disabled by default and registered only when enabled. It is also being kept separate from the public content directory so its data cannot accidentally be served as a normal file.

Once the guestbook pages and remaining tests are finished, the development changes will eventually become the next main snapshot.

For now, snapshot `072526` is available from the Downloads section.
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