3 .\" Manual page created by:
5 .\" Guus Sliepen <guus@tinc-vpn.org>
9 .Nd tinc daemon configuration
13 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/
14 directory contain runtime and security information for the tinc daemon.
17 It is perfectly ok for you to run more than one tinc daemon.
18 However, in its default form,
19 you will soon notice that you can't use two different configuration files without the
24 We have thought of another way of dealing with this: network names.
25 This means that you call
29 option, which will assign a name to this daemon.
32 The effect of this is that the daemon will set its configuration root to
33 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa / ,
36 is your argument to the
39 You'll notice that messages appear in syslog as coming from
40 .Nm tincd. Ns Ar NETNAME .
43 However, it is not strictly necessary that you call tinc with the
46 In this case, the network name would just be empty,
47 and it will be used as such.
49 now looks for files in
50 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ ,
52 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa / ;
53 the configuration file should be
54 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/tinc.conf ,
55 and the host configuration files are now expected to be in
56 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/hosts/ .
59 But it is highly recommended that you use this feature of
61 because it will be so much clearer whom your daemon talks to.
62 Hence, we will assume that you use it.
65 Each tinc daemon should have a name that is unique in the network which it will be part of.
66 The name will be used by other tinc daemons for identification.
67 The name has to be declared in the
68 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf
73 choose something that will give unique and easy to remember names to your tinc daemon(s).
74 You could try things like hostnames, owner surnames or location names.
76 .Sh PUBLIC/PRIVATE KEYS
79 to generate public/private keypairs.
80 It will generate two keys.
81 The private key should be stored in a separate file
82 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /rsa_key.priv
85 stands for the network (see
88 The public key should be stored in the host configuration file
89 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/ Ns Va NAME
92 stands for the name of the local tinc daemon (see
95 .Sh SERVER CONFIGURATION
96 The server configuration of the daemon is done in the file
97 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf .
98 This file consists of comments (lines started with a
100 or assignments in the form of:
103 .Va Variable Li = Ar Value .
106 The variable names are case insensitive, and any spaces, tabs,
107 newlines and carriage returns are ignored.
108 Note: it is not required that you put in the
110 sign, but doing so improves readability.
111 If you leave it out, remember to replace it with at least one space character.
114 The server configuration is complemented with host specific configuration (see the next section).
115 Although all configuration options for the local host listed in this document can also be put in
116 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf ,
117 it is recommended to put host specific configuration options in the host configuration file,
118 as this makes it easy to exchange with other nodes.
121 Here are all valid variables, listed in alphabetical order.
122 The default value is given between parentheses.
123 .Bl -tag -width indent
125 .It Va AddressFamily Li = ipv4 | ipv6 | any Pq any
126 This option affects the address family of listening and outgoing sockets.
129 is selected, then depending on the operating system both IPv4 and IPv6 or just
130 IPv6 listening sockets will be created.
132 .It Va BindToAddress Li = Ar address Bq experimental
133 If your computer has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address,
135 will by default listen on all of them for incoming connections.
136 It is possible to bind only to a single address with this variable.
139 This option may not work on all platforms.
141 .It Va BindToInterface Li = Ar interface Bq experimental
142 If your computer has more than one network interface,
144 will by default listen on all of them for incoming connections.
145 It is possible to bind only to a single interface with this variable.
148 This option may not work on all platforms.
150 .It Va ConnectTo Li = Ar name
151 Specifies which other tinc daemon to connect to on startup.
154 variables may be specified,
155 in which case outgoing connections to each specified tinc daemon are made.
156 The names should be known to this tinc daemon
157 (i.e., there should be a host configuration file for the name on the
162 If you don't specify a host with
165 won't try to connect to other daemons at all,
166 and will instead just listen for incoming connections.
168 .It Va Device Li = Ar device Po Pa /dev/tap0 , Pa /dev/net/tun No or other depending on platform Pc
169 The virtual network device to use.
171 will automatically detect what kind of device it is.
172 Note that you can only use one device per daemon.
177 The info pages of the tinc package contain more information
178 about configuring the virtual network device.
180 .It Va DeviceType Li = tun | tunnohead | tunifhead | tap Po only supported on BSD platforms Pc
181 The type of the virtual network device.
182 Tinc will normally automatically select the right type, and this option should not be used.
183 However, in case tinc does not seem to correctly interpret packets received from the virtual network device,
184 using this option might help.
185 .Bl -tag -width indent
189 Depending on the platform, this can either be with or without an address family header (see below).
192 Set type to tun without an address family header.
193 Tinc will expect packets read from the virtual network device to start with an IP header.
194 On some platforms IPv6 packets cannot be read from or written to the device in this mode.
197 Set type to tun with an address family header.
198 Tinc will expect packets read from the virtual network device
199 to start with a four byte header containing the address family,
200 followed by an IP header.
201 This mode should support both IPv4 and IPv6 packets.
205 Tinc will expect packets read from the virtual network device
206 to start with an Ethernet header.
209 .It Va DirectOnly Li = yes | no Po no Pc Bq experimental
210 When this option is enabled, packets that cannot be sent directly to the destination node,
211 but which would have to be forwarded by an intermediate node, are dropped instead.
212 When combined with the IndirectData option,
213 packets for nodes for which we do not have a meta connection with are also dropped.
215 .It Va Forwarding Li = off | internal | kernel Po internal Pc Bq experimental
216 This option selects the way indirect packets are forwarded.
217 .Bl -tag -width indent
220 Incoming packets that are not meant for the local node,
221 but which should be forwarded to another node, are dropped.
224 Incoming packets that are meant for another node are forwarded by tinc internally.
227 This is the default mode, and unless you really know you need another forwarding mode, don't change it.
230 Incoming packets are always sent to the TUN/TAP device, even if the packets are not for the local node.
231 This is less efficient, but allows the kernel to apply its routing and firewall rules on them,
232 and can also help debugging.
235 .It Va GraphDumpFile Li = Ar filename Bq experimental
236 If this option is present,
238 will dump the current network graph to the file
240 every minute, unless there were no changes to the graph.
241 The file is in a format that can be read by graphviz tools.
244 starts with a pipe symbol |,
245 then the rest of the filename is interpreted as a shell command
246 that is executed, the graph is then sent to stdin.
248 .It Va Hostnames Li = yes | no Pq no
249 This option selects whether IP addresses (both real and on the VPN) should
250 be resolved. Since DNS lookups are blocking, it might affect tinc's
251 efficiency, even stopping the daemon for a few seconds every time it does
252 a lookup if your DNS server is not responding.
255 This does not affect resolving hostnames to IP addresses from the
256 host configuration files.
258 .It Va IffOneQueue Li = yes | no Po no Pc Bq experimental
259 (Linux only) Set IFF_ONE_QUEUE flag on TUN/TAP devices.
261 .It Va Interface Li = Ar interface
262 Defines the name of the interface corresponding to the virtual network device.
263 Depending on the operating system and the type of device this may or may not actually set the name of the interface.
264 Under Windows, this variable is used to select which network interface will be used.
267 this variable is almost always already correctly set.
269 .It Va KeyExpire Li = Ar seconds Pq 3600
270 This option controls the period the encryption keys used to encrypt the data are valid.
271 It is common practice to change keys at regular intervals to make it even harder for crackers,
272 even though it is thought to be nearly impossible to crack a single key.
274 .It Va MACExpire Li = Ar seconds Pq 600
275 This option controls the amount of time MAC addresses are kept before they are removed.
276 This only has effect when
281 .It Va MaxTimeout Li = Ar seconds Pq 900
282 This is the maximum delay before trying to reconnect to other tinc daemons.
284 .It Va Mode Li = router | switch | hub Pq router
285 This option selects the way packets are routed to other daemons.
286 .Bl -tag -width indent
291 variables in the host configuration files will be used to form a routing table.
292 Only unicast packets of routable protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) are supported in this mode.
295 This is the default mode, and unless you really know you need another mode, don't change it.
298 In this mode the MAC addresses of the packets on the VPN will be used to
299 dynamically create a routing table just like an Ethernet switch does.
300 Unicast, multicast and broadcast packets of every protocol that runs over Ethernet are supported in this mode
301 at the cost of frequent broadcast ARP requests and routing table updates.
304 This mode is primarily useful if you want to bridge Ethernet segments.
307 This mode is almost the same as the switch mode, but instead
308 every packet will be broadcast to the other daemons
309 while no routing table is managed.
312 .It Va Name Li = Ar name Bq required
313 This is the name which identifies this tinc daemon.
314 It must be unique for the virtual private network this daemon will connect to.
316 .It Va PingInterval Li = Ar seconds Pq 60
317 The number of seconds of inactivity that
319 will wait before sending a probe to the other end.
321 .It Va PingTimeout Li = Ar seconds Pq 5
322 The number of seconds to wait for a response to pings or to allow meta
323 connections to block. If the other end doesn't respond within this time,
324 the connection is terminated,
325 and the others will be notified of this.
327 .It Va PriorityInheritance Li = yes | no Po no Pc Bq experimental
328 When this option is enabled the value of the TOS field of tunneled IPv4 packets
329 will be inherited by the UDP packets that are sent out.
331 .It Va PrivateKey Li = Ar key Bq obsolete
332 The private RSA key of this tinc daemon.
333 It will allow this tinc daemon to authenticate itself to other daemons.
335 .It Va PrivateKeyFile Li = Ar filename Po Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /rsa_key.priv Pc
336 The file in which the private RSA key of this tinc daemon resides.
337 Note that there must be exactly one of
341 specified in the configuration file.
343 .It Va ProcessPriority Li = low | normal | high
344 When this option is used the priority of the tincd process will be adjusted.
345 Increasing the priority may help to reduce latency and packet loss on the VPN.
347 .It Va ReplayWindow Li = Ar bytes Pq 16
348 This is the size of the replay tracking window for each remote node, in bytes.
349 The window is a bitfield which tracks 1 packet per bit, so for example
350 the default setting of 16 will track up to 128 packets in the window. In high
351 bandwidth scenarios, setting this to a higher value can reduce packet loss from
352 the interaction of replay tracking with underlying real packet loss and/or
353 reordering. Setting this to zero will disable replay tracking completely and
354 pass all traffic, but leaves tinc vulnerable to replay-based attacks on your
357 .It Va StrictSubnets Li = yes | no Po no Pc Bq experimental
358 When this option is enabled tinc will only use Subnet statements which are
359 present in the host config files in the local
360 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/
363 .It Va TunnelServer Li = yes | no Po no Pc Bq experimental
364 When this option is enabled tinc will no longer forward information between other tinc daemons,
365 and will only allow connections with nodes for which host config files are present in the local
366 .Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/
368 Setting this options also implicitly sets StrictSubnets.
370 .It Va UDPRcvBuf Li = Ar bytes Pq OS default
371 Sets the socket receive buffer size for the UDP socket, in bytes.
372 If unset, the default buffer size will be used by the operating system.
374 .It Va UDPSndBuf Li = Ar bytes Pq OS default
375 Sets the socket send buffer size for the UDP socket, in bytes.
376 If unset, the default buffer size will be used by the operating system.
379 .Sh HOST CONFIGURATION FILES
380 The host configuration files contain all information needed
381 to establish a connection to those hosts.
382 A host configuration file is also required for the local tinc daemon,
383 it will use it to read in it's listen port, public key and subnets.
386 The idea is that these files are portable.
387 You can safely mail your own host configuration file to someone else.
388 That other person can then copy it to his own hosts directory,
389 and now his tinc daemon will be able to connect to your tinc daemon.
390 Since host configuration files only contain public keys,
391 no secrets are revealed by sending out this information.
392 .Bl -tag -width indent
394 .It Va Address Li = Ar address Oo port Oc Bq recommended
395 The IP address or hostname of this tinc daemon on the real network.
396 This will only be used when trying to make an outgoing connection to this tinc daemon.
397 Optionally, a port can be specified to use for this address.
400 variables can be specified, in which case each address will be tried until a working
401 connection has been established.
403 .It Va Cipher Li = Ar cipher Pq blowfish
404 The symmetric cipher algorithm used to encrypt UDP packets.
405 Any cipher supported by OpenSSL is recognised.
406 Furthermore, specifying
408 will turn off packet encryption.
409 It is best to use only those ciphers which support CBC mode.
411 .It Va ClampMSS Li = yes | no Pq yes
412 This option specifies whether tinc should clamp the maximum segment size (MSS)
413 of TCP packets to the path MTU. This helps in situations where ICMP
414 Fragmentation Needed or Packet too Big messages are dropped by firewalls.
416 .It Va Compression Li = Ar level Pq 0
417 This option sets the level of compression used for UDP packets.
418 Possible values are 0 (off), 1 (fast zlib) and any integer up to 9 (best zlib),
419 10 (fast lzo) and 11 (best lzo).
421 .It Va Digest Li = Ar digest Pq sha1
422 The digest algorithm used to authenticate UDP packets.
423 Any digest supported by OpenSSL is recognised.
424 Furthermore, specifying
426 will turn off packet authentication.
428 .It Va IndirectData Li = yes | no Pq no
429 This option specifies whether other tinc daemons besides the one you specified with
431 can make a direct connection to you.
432 This is especially useful if you are behind a firewall
433 and it is impossible to make a connection from the outside to your tinc daemon.
434 Otherwise, it is best to leave this option out or set it to no.
436 .It Va MACLength Li = Ar length Pq 4
437 The length of the message authentication code used to authenticate UDP packets.
440 up to the length of the digest produced by the digest algorithm.
442 .It Va PMTU Li = Ar mtu Po 1514 Pc
443 This option controls the initial path MTU to this node.
445 .It Va PMTUDiscovery Li = yes | no Po yes Pc
446 When this option is enabled, tinc will try to discover the path MTU to this node.
447 After the path MTU has been discovered, it will be enforced on the VPN.
449 .It Va Port Li = Ar port Pq 655
450 The port number on which this tinc daemon is listening for incoming connections,
451 which is used if no port number is specified in an
455 .It Va PublicKey Li = Ar key Bq obsolete
456 The public RSA key of this tinc daemon.
457 It will be used to cryptographically verify it's identity and to set up a secure connection.
459 .It Va PublicKeyFile Li = Ar filename Bq obsolete
460 The file in which the public RSA key of this tinc daemon resides.
463 From version 1.0pre4 on
465 will store the public key directly into the host configuration file in PEM format,
466 the above two options then are not necessary.
467 Either the PEM format is used, or exactly one of the above two options must be specified
468 in each host configuration file,
469 if you want to be able to establish a connection with that host.
471 .It Va Subnet Li = Ar address Ns Op Li / Ns Ar prefixlength Ns Op Li # Ns Ar weight
472 The subnet which this tinc daemon will serve.
474 tries to look up which other daemon it should send a packet to by searching the appropriate subnet.
475 If the packet matches a subnet,
476 it will be sent to the daemon who has this subnet in his host configuration file.
479 variables can be specified.
482 Subnets can either be single MAC, IPv4 or IPv6 addresses,
483 in which case a subnet consisting of only that single address is assumed,
484 or they can be a IPv4 or IPv6 network address with a prefixlength.
485 Shorthand notations are not supported.
486 For example, IPv4 subnets must be in a form like 192.168.1.0/24,
487 where 192.168.1.0 is the network address and 24 is the number of bits set in the netmask.
488 Note that subnets like 192.168.1.1/24 are invalid!
489 Read a networking HOWTO/FAQ/guide if you don't understand this.
490 IPv6 subnets are notated like fec0:0:0:1:0:0:0:0/64.
491 MAC addresses are notated like 0:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e.
494 A Subnet can be given a weight to indicate its priority over identical Subnets
495 owned by different nodes. The default weight is 10. Lower values indicate
496 higher priority. Packets will be sent to the node with the highest priority,
497 unless that node is not reachable, in which case the node with the next highest
498 priority will be tried, and so on.
500 .It Va TCPOnly Li = yes | no Pq no Bq obsolete
501 If this variable is set to yes,
502 then the packets are tunnelled over the TCP connection instead of a UDP connection.
503 This is especially useful for those who want to run a tinc daemon
504 from behind a masquerading firewall,
505 or if UDP packet routing is disabled somehow.
506 Setting this options also implicitly sets IndirectData.
509 Since version 1.0.10, tinc will automatically detect whether communication via
510 UDP is possible or not.
514 Apart from reading the server and host configuration files,
515 tinc can also run scripts at certain moments.
516 Under Windows (not Cygwin), the scripts should have the extension
518 .Bl -tag -width indent
520 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc-up
521 This is the most important script.
522 If it is present it will be executed right after the tinc daemon has been started and has connected to the virtual network device.
523 It should be used to set up the corresponding network interface,
524 but can also be used to start other things.
525 Under Windows you can use the Network Connections control panel instead of creating this script.
527 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc-down
528 This script is started right before the tinc daemon quits.
530 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/ Ns Ar HOST Ns Pa -up
531 This script is started when the tinc daemon with name
535 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/ Ns Ar HOST Ns Pa -down
536 This script is started when the tinc daemon with name
540 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /host-up
541 This script is started when any host becomes reachable.
543 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /host-down
544 This script is started when any host becomes unreachable.
546 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /subnet-up
547 This script is started when a Subnet becomes reachable.
548 The Subnet and the node it belongs to are passed in environment variables.
550 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /subnet-down
551 This script is started when a Subnet becomes unreachable.
555 The scripts are started without command line arguments, but can make use of certain environment variables.
556 Under UNIX like operating systems the names of environment variables must be preceded by a
561 files, they have to be put between
564 .Bl -tag -width indent
567 If a netname was specified, this environment variable contains it.
570 Contains the name of this tinc daemon.
573 Contains the name of the virtual network device that tinc uses.
576 Contains the name of the virtual network interface that tinc uses.
577 This should be used for commands like
581 When a host becomes (un)reachable, this is set to its name.
582 If a subnet becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the owner of that subnet.
585 When a host becomes (un)reachable, this is set to its real address.
588 When a host becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the port number it uses for communication with other tinc daemons.
591 When a subnet becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the subnet.
594 When a subnet becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the subnet weight.
598 The most important files are:
599 .Bl -tag -width indent
601 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/
602 The top directory for configuration files.
604 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc.conf
605 The default name of the server configuration file for net
608 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /hosts/
609 Host configuration files are kept in this directory.
611 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc-up
612 If an executable file with this name exists,
613 it will be executed right after the tinc daemon has connected to the virtual network device.
614 It can be used to set up the corresponding network interface.
616 .It Pa @sysconfdir@/tinc/ Ns Ar NETNAME Ns Pa /tinc-down
617 If an executable file with this name exists,
618 it will be executed right before the tinc daemon is going to close
619 its connection to the virtual network device.
624 .Pa http://www.tinc-vpn.org/ ,
625 .Pa http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/nag2/ .
628 The full documentation for
630 is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
631 If the info and tinc programs are properly installed at your site, the command
633 should give you access to the complete manual.
637 comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
638 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
639 see the file COPYING for details.