3 .\" Manual page created by:
4 .\" Ivo Timmermans <ivo@o2w.nl>
5 .\" Guus Sliepen <guus@sliepen.eu.org>
8 .Nd tinc daemon configuration
12 directory contain runtime and security information for the tinc daemon.
14 It is perfectly ok for you to run more than one tinc daemon.
15 However, in its default form,
16 you will soon notice that you can't use two different configuration files without the
20 We have thought of another way of dealing with this: network names.
21 This means that you call
25 option, which will assign a name to this daemon.
27 The effect of this is that the daemon will set its configuration root to
28 .Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa / ,
31 is your argument to the
34 You'll notice that messages appear in syslog as coming from
35 .Nm tincd. Ns Ar NETNAME .
37 However, it is not strictly necessary that you call tinc with the
40 In this case, the network name would just be empty,
41 and it will be used as such.
43 now looks for files in
46 .Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa / ;
47 the configuration file should be
48 .Pa /etc/tinc/tinc.conf ,
49 and the host configuration files are now expected to be in
50 .Pa /etc/tinc/hosts/ .
52 But it is highly recommended that you use this feature of
54 because it will be so much clearer whom your daemon talks to.
55 Hence, we will assume that you use it.
57 Each tinc daemon should have a name that is unique in the network which it will be part of.
58 The name will be used by other tinc daemons for identification.
59 The name has to be declared in the
60 .Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf
64 choose something that will give unique and easy to remember names to your tinc daemon(s).
65 You could try things like hostnames, owner surnames or location names.
66 .Sh PUBLIC/PRIVATE KEYS
69 to generate public/private keypairs.
70 It will generate two keys.
71 The private key should be stored in a separate file
72 .Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /rsa_key.priv
75 stands for the network (see
78 The public key should be stored in the host configuration file
79 .Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/ Ns Va NAME
82 stands for the name of the local tinc daemon (see
84 .Sh SERVER CONFIGURATION
85 The server configuration of the daemon is done in the file
86 .Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf .
87 This file consists of comments (lines started with a
89 or assignments in the form of:
91 .Va Variable Li = Ar Value .
93 The variable names are case insensitive, and any spaces, tabs,
94 newlines and carriage returns are ignored.
95 Note: it is not required that you put in the
97 sign, but doing so improves readability.
98 If you leave it out, remember to replace it with at least one space character.
100 Here are all valid variables, listed in alphabetical order.
101 The default value is given between parentheses.
102 .Bl -tag -width indent
103 .It Va AddressFamily Li = ipv4 | ipv6 | any Pq any
104 This option affects the address family of listening and outgoing sockets.
107 is selected, then depending on the operating system both IPv4 and IPv6 or just
108 IPv6 listening sockets will be created.
109 .It Va BindToAddress Li = Ar address Bq experimental
110 If your computer has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address,
112 will by default listen on all of them for incoming connections.
113 It is possible to bind only to a single address with this variable.
115 This option may not work on all platforms.
116 .It Va BindToInterface Li = Ar interface Bq experimental
117 If your computer has more than one network interface,
119 will by default listen on all of them for incoming connections.
120 It is possible to bind only to a single interface with this variable.
122 This option may not work on all platforms.
123 .It Va ConnectTo Li = Ar name
124 Specifies which other tinc daemon to connect to on startup.
127 variables may be specified,
128 in which case outgoing connections to each specified tinc daemon are made.
129 The names should be known to this tinc daemon
130 (i.e., there should be a host configuration file for the name on the
134 If you don't specify a host with
137 won't try to connect to other daemons at all,
138 and will instead just listen for incoming connections.
139 .It Va Device Li = Ar device Po /dev/tap0 or /dev/net/tun Pc
140 The virtual network device to use.
142 will automatically detect what kind of device it is.
143 Note that you can only use one device per daemon.
144 The info pages of the tinc package contain more information
145 about configuring the virtual network device.
146 .It Va Hostnames Li = yes | no Pq no
147 This option selects whether IP addresses (both real and on the VPN) should
148 be resolved. Since DNS lookups are blocking, it might affect tinc's
149 efficiency, even stopping the daemon for a few seconds every time it does
150 a lookup if your DNS server is not responding.
152 This does not affect resolving hostnames to IP addresses from the
153 host configuration files.
154 .It Va Interface Li = Ar interface
155 Defines the name of the interface corresponding to the virtual network device.
156 Depending on the operating system and the type of device this may or may not actually set the name.
157 Currently this option only affects the Linux tun/tap device.
158 .It Va KeyExpire Li = Ar period Pq 3600
159 This option controls the period the encryption keys used to encrypt the data are valid.
160 It is common practice to change keys at regular intervals to make it even harder for crackers,
161 even though it is thought to be nearly impossible to crack a single key.
162 .It Va MACExpire Li = Ar period Pq 600
163 This option controls the amount of time MAC addresses are kept before they are removed.
164 This only has effect when
168 .It Va MaxTimeout Li = Ar period Pq 900
169 This is the maximum delay before trying to reconnect to other tinc daemons.
170 .It Va Mode Li = router | switch | hub Pq router
171 This option selects the way packets are routed to other daemons.
172 .Bl -tag -width indent
176 variables in the host configuration files will be used to form a routing table.
177 Only unicast packets of routable protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) are supported in this mode.
179 In this mode the MAC addresses of the packets on the VPN will be used to
180 dynamically create a routing table just like an Ethernet switch does.
181 Unicast, multicast and broadcast packets of every protocol that runs over Ethernet are supported in this mode
182 at the cost of frequent broadcast ARP requests and routing table updates.
184 This mode is almost the same as the switch mode, but instead
185 every packet will be broadcast to the other daemons
186 while no routing table is managed.
188 .It Va Name Li = Ar name Bq required
189 This is the name which identifies this tinc daemon.
190 It must be unique for the virtual private network this daemon will connect to.
191 .It Va PingTimeout Li = Ar period Pq 60
192 The number of seconds of inactivity that
194 will wait before sending a probe to the other end.
195 If that other end doesn't answer within that same amount of time,
196 the connection is terminated,
197 and the others will be notified of this.
198 .It Va PriorityInheritance Li = yes | no Po no Pc Bq experimental
199 When this option is enabled the value of the TOS field of tunneled IPv4 packets
200 will be inherited by the UDP packets that are sent out.
201 .It Va PrivateKey Li = Ar key Bq obsolete
202 The private RSA key of this tinc daemon.
203 It will allow this tinc daemon to authenticate itself to other daemons.
204 .It Va PrivateKeyFile Li = Ar filename Bq recommended
205 The file in which the private RSA key of this tinc daemon resides.
206 Note that there must be exactly one of
210 specified in the configuration file.
212 .Sh HOST CONFIGURATION FILES
213 The host configuration files contain all information needed
214 to establish a connection to those hosts.
215 A host configuration file is also required for the local tinc daemon,
216 it will use it to read in it's listen port, public key and subnets.
218 The idea is that these files are portable.
219 You can safely mail your own host configuration file to someone else.
220 That other person can then copy it to his own hosts directory,
221 and now his tinc daemon will be able to connect to your tinc daemon.
222 Since host configuration files only contain public keys,
223 no secrets are revealed by sending out this information.
224 .Bl -tag -width indent
225 .It Va Address Li = Ar address Bq recommended
226 The IP address or hostname of this tinc daemon on the real network.
227 This wil only be used when trying to make an outgoing connection to this tinc daemon.
230 variables can be specified, in which case each address will be tried until a working
231 connection has been established.
232 .It Va Cipher Li = Ar cipher Pq blowfish
233 The symmetric cipher algorithm used to encrypt UDP packets.
234 Any cipher supported by OpenSSL is recognised.
235 Furthermore, specifying
237 will turn off packet encryption.
238 .It Va Compression Li = Ar level Pq 0
239 This option sets the level of compression used for UDP packets.
240 Possible values are 0 (off), 1 (fast zlib) and any integer up to 9 (best zlib),
242 .It Va Digest Li = Ar digest Pq sha1
243 The digest algorithm used to authenticate UDP packets.
244 Any digest supported by OpenSSL is recognised.
245 Furthermore, specifying
247 will turn off packet authentication.
248 .It Va IndirectData Li = yes | no Pq no
249 This option specifies whether other tinc daemons besides the one you specified with
251 can make a direct connection to you.
252 This is especially useful if you are behind a firewall
253 and it is impossible to make a connection from the outside to your tinc daemon.
254 Otherwise, it is best to leave this option out or set it to no.
255 .It Va MACLength Li = Ar length Pq 4
256 The length of the message authentication code used to authenticate UDP packets.
259 up to the length of the digest produced by the digest algorithm.
260 .It Va Port Li = Ar port Pq 655
261 The port number on which this tinc daemon is listening for incoming connections.
262 .It Va PublicKey Li = Ar key Bq obsolete
263 The public RSA key of this tinc daemon.
264 It will be used to cryptographically verify it's identity and to set up a secure connection.
265 .It Va PublicKeyFile Li = Ar filename Bq obsolete
266 The file in which the public RSA key of this tinc daemon resides.
268 From version 1.0pre4 on
270 will store the public key directly into the host configuration file in PEM format,
271 the above two options then are not necessary.
272 Either the PEM format is used, or exactly one of the above two options must be specified
273 in each host configuration file,
274 if you want to be able to establish a connection with that host.
275 .It Va Subnet Li = Ar address Ns Op Li / Ns Ar prefixlength
276 The subnet which this tinc daemon will serve.
278 tries to look up which other daemon it should send a packet to by searching the appropriate subnet.
279 If the packet matches a subnet,
280 it will be sent to the daemon who has this subnet in his host configuration file.
283 variables can be specified.
285 Subnets can either be single MAC, IPv4 or IPv6 addresses,
286 in which case a subnet consisting of only that single address is assumed,
287 or they can be a IPv4 or IPv6 network address with a prefixlength.
288 Shorthand notations are not supported.
289 For example, IPv4 subnets must be in a form like 192.168.1.0/24,
290 where 192.168.1.0 is the network address and 24 is the number of bits set in the netmask.
291 Note that subnets like 192.168.1.1/24 are invalid!
292 Read a networking HOWTO/FAQ/guide if you don't understand this.
293 IPv6 subnets are notated like fec0:0:0:1:0:0:0:0/64.
294 MAC addresses are notated like 0:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e.
295 .It Va TCPOnly Li = yes | no Pq no
296 If this variable is set to yes,
297 then the packets are tunnelled over the TCP connection instead of a UDP connection.
298 This is especially useful for those who want to run a tinc daemon
299 from behind a masquerading firewall,
300 or if UDP packet routing is disabled somehow.
301 Setting this options also implicitly sets IndirectData.
304 .Bl -tag -width indent
306 The top directory for configuration files.
307 .It Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf
308 The default name of the server configuration file for net
310 .It Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/
311 Host configuration files are kept in this directory.
312 .It Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc-up
313 If an executable file with this name exists,
314 it will be executed right after the tinc daemon has connected to the virtual network device.
315 It can be used to set up the corresponding network interface.
317 The environment variable
319 will be passed to the executable.
320 If specified with the
322 configuration variable,
323 or if the virtual network device is a Linux tun/tap device,
324 the environment variable
326 will be set to the name of the network interface.
327 .It Pa /etc/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc-down
328 If an executable file with this name exists,
329 it will be executed right before the tinc daemon is going to close
330 its connection to the virtual network device.
331 The same environment variables will be passed as mentioned above.
335 .Pa http://tinc.nl.linux.org/ ,
336 .Pa http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/nag2/ .
338 The full documentation for
340 is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
341 If the info and tinc programs are properly installed at your site, the command
343 should give you access to the complete manual.
346 comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
347 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
348 see the file COPYING for details.