tinc/doc/tincd.8.in

.Dd 2009-05-18
.Dt TINCD 8
.\" Manual page created by:
.\" Ivo Timmermans
.\" Guus Sliepen <guus@tinc-vpn.org>
.Sh NAME
.Nm tincd
.Nd tinc VPN daemon
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl cdDkKnLRU
.Op Fl -config Ns = Ns Ar DIR
.Op Fl -no-detach
.Op Fl -debug Ns Op = Ns Ar LEVEL
.Op Fl -kill Ns Op = Ns Ar SIGNAL
.Op Fl -net Ns = Ns Ar NETNAME
.Op Fl -generate-keys Ns Op = Ns Ar BITS
.Op Fl -mlock
.Op Fl -logfile Ns Op = Ns Ar FILE
.Op Fl -pidfile Ns = Ns Ar FILE
.Op Fl -bypass-security
.Op Fl -chroot
.Op Fl -user Ns = Ns Ar USER
.Op Fl -help
.Op Fl -version
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This is the daemon of tinc, a secure virtual private network (VPN) project.
When started,
.Nm
will read it's configuration file to determine what virtual subnets it has to serve
and to what other tinc daemons it should connect.
It will connect to the ethertap or tun/tap device
and set up a socket for incoming connections.
Optionally a script will be executed to further configure the virtual device.
If that succeeds,
it will detach from the controlling terminal and continue in the background,
accepting and setting up connections to other tinc daemons
that are part of the virtual private network.
Under Windows (not Cygwin) tinc will install itself as a service,
which will be restarted automatically after reboots.
.Sh OPTIONS
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl c, -config Ns = Ns Ar DIR
Read configuration files from
.Ar DIR
instead of
.Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ .
.It Fl D, -no-detach
Don't fork and detach.
This will also disable the automatic restart mechanism for fatal errors.
If not mentioned otherwise, this will show log messages on the standard error output.
.It Fl d, -debug Ns Op = Ns Ar LEVEL
Increase debug level or set it to
.Ar LEVEL
(see below).
.It Fl k, -kill Ns Op = Ns Ar SIGNAL
Attempt to kill a running
.Nm
(optionally with the specified
.Ar SIGNAL
instead of SIGTERM) and exit.
Under Windows (not Cygwin) the optional argument is ignored,
the service will always be stopped and removed.
.It Fl n, -net Ns = Ns Ar NETNAME
Connect to net
.Ar NETNAME .
.It Fl K, -generate-keys Ns Op = Ns Ar BITS
Generate public/private RSA keypair and exit.
If
.Ar BITS
is omitted, the default length will be 1024 bits.
When saving keys to existing files, tinc will not delete the old keys,
you have to remove them manually.
.It Fl L, -mlock
Lock tinc into main memory.
This will prevent sensitive data like shared private keys to be written to the system swap files/partitions.
.It Fl -logfile Ns Op = Ns Ar FILE
Write log entries to a file instead of to the system logging facility.
If
.Ar FILE
is omitted, the default is
.Pa @localstatedir@/log/tinc. Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa .log.
.It Fl -pidfile Ns = Ns Ar FILE
Write PID to
.Ar FILE
instead of
.Pa @localstatedir@/run/tinc. Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa .pid.
Under Windows this option will be ignored.
.It Fl -bypass-security
Disables encryption and authentication of the meta protocol.
Only useful for debugging.
.It Fl -chroot
With this option tinc chroots into the directory where network
config is located (@sysconfdir@/tinc/NETNAME if -n option is used,
or to the directory specified with -c option) after initialization.
.It Fl -user Ns = Ns Ar USER
setuid to the specified
.Ar USER
after initialization.
.It Fl -help
Display short list of options.
.It Fl -version
Output version information and exit.
.El
.Sh SIGNALS
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It ALRM
Forces
.Nm
to try to connect to all uplinks immediately.
Usually
.Nm
attempts to do this itself,
but increases the time it waits between the attempts each time it failed,
and if
.Nm
didn't succeed to connect to an uplink the first time after it started,
it defaults to the maximum time of 15 minutes.
.It HUP
Partially rereads configuration files.
Connections to hosts whose host config file are removed are closed.
New outgoing connections specified in
.Pa tinc.conf
will be made.
.It INT
Temporarily increases debug level to 5.
Send this signal again to revert to the original level.
.It USR1
Dumps the connection list to syslog.
.It USR2
Dumps virtual network device statistics, all known nodes, edges and subnets to syslog.
.It WINCH
Purges all information remembered about unreachable nodes.
.El
.Sh DEBUG LEVELS
The tinc daemon can send a lot of messages to the syslog.
The higher the debug level,
the more messages it will log.
Each level inherits all messages of the previous level:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It 0
This will log a message indicating
.Nm
has started along with a version number.
It will also log any serious error.
.It 1
This will log all connections that are made with other tinc daemons.
.It 2
This will log status and error messages from scripts and other tinc daemons.
.It 3
This will log all requests that are exchanged with other tinc daemons. These include
authentication, key exchange and connection list updates.
.It 4
This will log a copy of everything received on the meta socket.
.It 5
This will log all network traffic over the virtual private network.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/
Directory containing the configuration files tinc uses.
For more information, see
.Xr tinc.conf 5 .
.It Pa @localstatedir@/run/tinc. Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa .pid
The PID of the currently running
.Nm
is stored in this file.
.El
.Sh BUGS
The
.Va BindToInterface
option may not work correctly.
.Pp
.Sy The cryptography in tinc is not well tested yet. Use it at your own risk!
.Pp
If you find any bugs, report them to tinc@tinc-vpn.org.
.Sh TODO
A lot, especially security auditing.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr tinc.conf 5 ,
.Pa http://www.tinc-vpn.org/ ,
.Pa http://www.cabal.org/ .
.Pp
The full documentation for tinc is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
If the info and tinc programs are properly installed at your site,
the command
.Ic info tinc
should give you access to the complete manual.
.Pp
tinc comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
see the file COPYING for details.
.Sh AUTHORS
.An "Ivo Timmermans"
.An "Guus Sliepen" Aq guus@tinc-vpn.org
.Pp
And thanks to many others for their contributions to tinc!