Vmate ⚡

Note: Vmate only optimized well on configs from vpn gate

Fast, concurrent OpenVPN configuration validator that automatically finds working .ovpn files from your specified directory.

What it does: Instead of manually testing each OpenVPN config file with sudo openvpn --config, Vmate automates the entire process, saving you hours of tedious work.

🚀 Performance

This is a complete rewrite of my original Java version in Go, leveraging goroutines for massive concurrency improvements:

Version	Processing Time (250 configs)	Speed Improvement
Java	~40 minutes	Baseline
Go	~10 seconds	240x faster

The more system resources you have (especially RAM), the better the performance scales.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Automatic Discovery: Scans specified directories recursively for .ovpn files
• ⚡ Concurrent Testing: Uses goroutines to test multiple configs simultaneously
• ⏱️ Configurable Timeout: Set custom timeouts for each connection test
• 🎯 Result Limiting: Control how many working configs to find
• 🔧 Verbose Mode: Get detailed output for debugging
• 📊 Worker Pool Management: Control concurrency levels to match your system
• 🔄 Smart Connect: Connect to a specific config with auto-reconnection and failover
• 📜 Recent History: View and reuse previously successful configs
• ✏️ Config Modifier: Automatically fix outdated cipher settings in .ovpn files
• 📈 Progress Visualization: Real-time progress bar showing test status

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.19+ (for building from source)
• OpenVPN installed on your system
• Root/sudo access (required for OpenVPN testing - Vmate will prompt automatically)

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/codewiththiha/vmate-cli.git
cd vmate-cli
go build -o vmate-cli main.go
sudo mv vmate-cli /usr/local/bin/

Install with Go

go install github.com/codewiththiha/vmate-cli@latest

Note: Ensure your GOPATH/bin (usually ~/go/bin) is in your system's PATH:

export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

Troubleshooting go install Issues

If you encounter version conflicts or caching issues:

1. Bypass the Go Module Proxy:

GOPROXY=direct go install github.com/codewiththiha/vmate-cli@latest

2. Install a Specific Commit:

# Get the latest commit hash
git ls-remote https://github.com/codewiththiha/vmate-cli.git HEAD

# Then install using that commit
go install github.com/codewiththiha/vmate-cli@<commit-hash>

3. Install from Local Clone:

git clone https://github.com/codewiththiha/vmate-cli.git
cd vmate-cli
go install .
sudo mv $(go env GOPATH)/bin/vmate-cli /usr/local/bin/

Why these issues happen: The Go module proxy caches versions for performance, and it can take 30-60 minutes to recognize new commits.

🎯 Usage

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Do NOT run Vmate with sudo manually. The tool automatically requests root privileges when needed.

# Basic usage - scan default home directory
vmate-cli

# Scan specific directory with custom settings
vmate-cli --dir=/path/to/ovpn/files --limit=50 --timeout=10 --max=20

# Get detailed output
vmate-cli --verbose --dir=~/vpn-configs

# View previously successful configs
vmate-cli --recent

# Connect to a specific config with smart failover
vmate-cli --connect=/path/to/config.ovpn

# Fix outdated cipher settings in all configs
vmate-cli --dir=/path/to/ovpn/files --modify

Command Line Flags

Flags:
  -d, --dir string      Directory containing .ovpn files (default "~/")
  -h, --help            Help for vmate
  -l, --limit int       Maximum number of working configs to find (default 100)
  -m, --max int         Maximum concurrent worker processes (default 200)
  -t, --timeout int     Timeout in seconds for each connection test (default 15)
      --verbose         Enable detailed output for debugging
  -r, --recent          Display recently successful configs from history
      --modify          Fix outdated cipher settings in .ovpn files
  -c, --connect string  Connect to a specific config with smart reconnection

Flag Compatibility Notes

• --recent must be used alone (incompatible with other operational flags)
• --connect can be combined with --verbose but not other flags
• The tool automatically re-executes with sudo if not run as root

🛠️ Configuration

Vmate automatically respects your system's OpenVPN capabilities. Configuration history is stored in recent.txt in the current directory.

Important Notes

• ⚠️ DO NOT run with sudo manually - Vmate automatically requests root privileges when needed
• Adjust --max based on your system's RAM (higher = faster but more memory usage)
• Use --timeout to balance speed vs. thoroughness (lower = faster, but might miss slow servers)
• Set --limit to 0 for unlimited results
• Recent history is saved after each successful scan and persists across sessions

Config Modifier

The --modify flag automatically updates outdated cipher configurations:

• Replaces cipher AES-128-CBC with modern data-ciphers AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM:CHACHA20-POLY1305:AES-128-CBC
• Marks modified files with #MODIFIED header to prevent duplicate changes
• Only processes files that haven't been modified already

🗺️ Roadmap

• Core CLI functionality
• Concurrent processing with worker pools
• Smart connection management with auto-reconnection
• Recent history tracking
• Config modifier for outdated ciphers
• GUI version - Currently in development using Wails

🤝 Contributing

This project is in beta (v0.0.2a). Basic functions are stable and usable. Contributions are welcome! Please ensure all CLI flags are documented when adding new features.

💭 Feedback

Found a working config that Vmate missed? Open an issue with the details. Performance not meeting expectations? Let me know your setup!

🙏 Acknowledgments

• The Go team for making concurrency approachable
• Cobra for the excellent CLI framework
• OpenVPN community for maintaining the protocol

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⚠️ Beta Notice: This tool is currently in beta (v0.0.2a). While core functionality is stable, please report any issues you encounter.