problem: don't want to run my server as root to bind to privileged ports (e.g. 80, 443).

solution: support privilege drop after socket bind via new --user <username> parameter.

Author: Niall O'Higgins

bin/node-http-proxy

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ var help = [
     "  --target HOST:PORT  Location of the server the proxy will target",
     "  --config OUTFILE    Location of the configuration file for the proxy server",
     "  --silent            Silence the log output from the proxy server",
+    "  --user   USER       User to drop privileges to once server socket is bound",
     "  -h, --help          You're staring at it"
 ].join('\n');
 
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@ var location, config = {},
     port = argv.port || 80, 
     host = argv.host || undefined, 
     target = argv.target;
+    user = argv.user;
 
 //
 // If we were passed a config, parse it
@@ -85,6 +87,14 @@ if (host) {
   server.listen(port);
 }
 
+
+//
+// Drop privileges if requested
+//
+if (typeof user === 'string') {
+    process.setuid(user);
+}
+
 //
 // Notify that the server is started
 //