The network is virtual, your privacy is not...

TINC.CONF(5)                BSD File Formats Manual               TINC.CONF(5)

NAME
     tinc.conf - tinc daemon configuration

DESCRIPTION
     The files in the /etc/tinc/ directory contain runtime and security infor‐
     mation for the tinc daemon.

NETWORKS
     It is perfectly ok for you to run more than one tinc daemon.  However, in
     its default form, you will soon notice that you can’t use two different
     configuration files without the -c option.

     We have thought of another way of dealing with this: network names.  This
     means that you call tinc.conf with the -n option, which will assign a
     name to this daemon.

     The effect of this is that the daemon will set its configuration root to
     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/, where NETNAME is your argument to the -n option.
     You’ll notice that messages appear in syslog as coming from
     tincd.NETNAME.

     However, it is not strictly necessary that you call tinc with the -n
     option.  In this case, the network name would just be empty, and it will
     be used as such.  tinc now looks for files in /etc/tinc/, instead of
     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/; the configuration file should be /etc/tinc/tinc.conf,
     and the host configuration files are now expected to be in
     /etc/tinc/hosts/.

     But it is highly recommended that you use this feature of tinc, because
     it will be so much clearer whom your daemon talks to.  Hence, we will
     assume that you use it.

NAMES
     Each tinc daemon should have a name that is unique in the network which
     it will be part of.  The name will be used by other tinc daemons for
     identification.  The name has to be declared in the
     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc.conf file.

     To make things easy, choose something that will give unique and easy to
     remember names to your tinc daemon(s).  You could try things like host‐
     names, owner surnames or location names.
     You should use tincd -K to generate public/private keypairs.  It will
     generate two keys.  The private key should be stored in a separate file
     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/rsa_key.priv -- where NETNAME stands for the network
     (see NETWORKS) above.  The public key should be stored in the host con‐
     figuration file /etc/tinc/NETNAME/hosts/NAME -- where NAME stands for the
     name of the local tinc daemon (see NAMES).
     The server configuration of the daemon is done in the file
     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc.conf.  This file consists of comments (lines
     started with a #) or assignments in the form of:

     Variable = Value.

     The variable names are case insensitive, and any spaces, tabs, newlines
     and carriage returns are ignored.  Note: it is not required that you put
     in the = sign, but doing so improves readability.  If you leave it out,
     remember to replace it with at least one space character.

     Here are all valid variables, listed in alphabetical order.  The default
     value is given between parentheses.

     AddressFamily = ipv4 | ipv6 | any (any)
             This option affects the address family of listening and outgoing
             sockets.  If "any" is selected, then depending on the operating
             system both IPv4 and IPv6 or just IPv6 listening sockets will be
             created.

     BindToAddress = address [experimental]
             If your computer has more than one IPv4 or IPv6 address, tinc
             will by default listen on all of them for incoming connections.
             It is possible to bind only to a single address with this vari‐
             able.

             This option may not work on all platforms.

     BindToInterface = interface [experimental]
             If your computer has more than one network interface, tinc will
             by default listen on all of them for incoming connections.  It is
             possible to bind only to a single interface with this variable.

             This option may not work on all platforms.

     ConnectTo = name
             Specifies which other tinc daemon to connect to on startup.  Mul‐
             tiple ConnectTo variables may be specified, in which case outgo‐
             ing connections to each specified tinc daemon are made.  The
             names should be known to this tinc daemon (i.e., there should be
             a host configuration file for the name on the ConnectTo line).

             If you don’t specify a host with ConnectTo, tinc won’t try to
             connect to other daemons at all, and will instead just listen for
             incoming connections.

     Device = device (/dev/tap0, /dev/net/tun or other depending on platform)
             The virtual network device to use.  tinc will automatically
             detect what kind of device it is.  Note that you can only use one
             device per daemon.  Under Windows, use Interface instead of
             Device.  The info pages of the tinc package contain more informa‐
             tion about configuring the virtual network device.

     DeviceType = tun | tunnohead | tunifhead | tap (only supported on BSD
             platforms)
             The type of the virtual network device.  Tinc will normally auto‐
             matically select the right type, and this option should not be
             used.  However, in case tinc does not seem to correctly interpret
             packets received from the virtual network device, using this
             option might help.

             tun     Set type to tun.  Depending on the platform, this can
                     either be with or without an address family header (see
                     below).

             tunnohead
                     Set type to tun without an address family header.  Tinc
                     will expect packets read from the virtual network device
                     to start with an IP header.  On some platforms IPv6 pack‐
                     ets cannot be read from or written to the device in this
                     mode.

             tunifhead
                     Set type to tun with an address family header.  Tinc will
                     expect packets read from the virtual network device to
                     start with a four byte header containing the address fam‐
                     ily, followed by an IP header.  This mode should support
                     both IPv4 and IPv6 packets.

             tap     Set type to tap.  Tinc will expect packets read from the
                     virtual network device to start with an Ethernet header.

     GraphDumpFile = filename [experimental]
             If this option is present, tinc will dump the current network
             graph to the file filename every minute, unless there were no
             changes to the graph.  The file is in a format that can be read
             by graphviz tools.  If filename starts with a pipe symbol |, then
             the rest of the filename is interpreted as a shell command that
             is executed, the graph is then sent to stdin.

     Hostnames = yes | no (no)
             This option selects whether IP addresses (both real and on the
             VPN) should be resolved. Since DNS lookups are blocking, it might
             affect tinc’s efficiency, even stopping the daemon for a few sec‐
             onds every time it does a lookup if your DNS server is not
             responding.

             This does not affect resolving hostnames to IP addresses from the
             host configuration files.

     Interface = interface
             Defines the name of the interface corresponding to the virtual
             network device.  Depending on the operating system and the type
             of device this may or may not actually set the name of the inter‐
             face.  Under Windows, this variable is used to select which net‐
             work interface will be used.  If you specified a Device, this
             variable is almost always already correctly set.

     KeyExpire = seconds (3600)
             This option controls the period the encryption keys used to
             encrypt the data are valid.  It is common practice to change keys
             at regular intervals to make it even harder for crackers, even
             though it is thought to be nearly impossible to crack a single
             key.

     MACExpire = seconds (600)
             This option controls the amount of time MAC addresses are kept
             before they are removed.  This only has effect when Mode is set
             to "switch".

     MaxTimeout = seconds (900)
             This is the maximum delay before trying to reconnect to other
             tinc daemons.

     Mode = router | switch | hub (router)
             This option selects the way packets are routed to other daemons.

             router  In this mode Subnet variables in the host configuration
                     files will be used to form a routing table.  Only unicast
                     packets of routable protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) are sup‐
                     ported in this mode.

                     This is the default mode, and unless you really know you
                     need another mode, don’t change it.

             switch  In this mode the MAC addresses of the packets on the VPN
                     will be used to dynamically create a routing table just
                     like an Ethernet switch does.  Unicast, multicast and
                     broadcast packets of every protocol that runs over Ether‐
                     net are supported in this mode at the cost of frequent
                     broadcast ARP requests and routing table updates.

                     This mode is primarily useful if you want to bridge Eth‐
                     ernet segments.

             hub     This mode is almost the same as the switch mode, but
                     instead every packet will be broadcast to the other dae‐
                     mons while no routing table is managed.

     Name = name [required]
             This is the name which identifies this tinc daemon.  It must be
             unique for the virtual private network this daemon will connect
             to.

     PingInterval = seconds (60)
             The number of seconds of inactivity that tinc will wait before
             sending a probe to the other end.

     PingTimeout = seconds (5)
             The number of seconds to wait for a response to pings or to allow
             meta connections to block. If the other end doesn’t respond
             within this time, the connection is terminated, and the others
             will be notified of this.

     PriorityInheritance = yes | no (no) [experimental]
             When this option is enabled the value of the TOS field of tun‐
             neled IPv4 packets will be inherited by the UDP packets that are
             sent out.

     PrivateKey = key [obsolete]
             The private RSA key of this tinc daemon.  It will allow this tinc
             daemon to authenticate itself to other daemons.

     PrivateKeyFile = filename (/etc/tinc/NETNAME/rsa_key.priv)
             The file in which the private RSA key of this tinc daemon
             resides.  Note that there must be exactly one of PrivateKey or
             PrivateKeyFile specified in the configuration file.

     TunnelServer = yes | no (no) [experimental]
             When this option is enabled tinc will no longer forward informa‐
             tion between other tinc daemons, and will only allow nodes and
             subnets on the VPN which are present in the
             /etc/tinc/NETNAME/hosts/ directory.
     The host configuration files contain all information needed to establish
     a connection to those hosts.  A host configuration file is also required
     for the local tinc daemon, it will use it to read in it’s listen port,
     public key and subnets.

     The idea is that these files are portable.  You can safely mail your own
     host configuration file to someone else.  That other person can then copy
     it to his own hosts directory, and now his tinc daemon will be able to
     connect to your tinc daemon.  Since host configuration files only contain
     public keys, no secrets are revealed by sending out this information.

     Address = address [recommended]
             The IP address or hostname of this tinc daemon on the real net‐
             work.  This will only be used when trying to make an outgoing
             connection to this tinc daemon.  Multiple Address variables can
             be specified, in which case each address will be tried until a
             working connection has been established.

     Cipher = cipher (blowfish)
             The symmetric cipher algorithm used to encrypt UDP packets.  Any
             cipher supported by OpenSSL is recognised.  Furthermore, specify‐
             ing "none" will turn off packet encryption.  It is best to use
             only those ciphers which support CBC mode.

     Compression = level (0)
             This option sets the level of compression used for UDP packets.
             Possible values are 0 (off), 1 (fast zlib) and any integer up to
             9 (best zlib), 10 (fast lzo) and 11 (best lzo).

     Digest = digest (sha1)
             The digest algorithm used to authenticate UDP packets.  Any
             digest supported by OpenSSL is recognised.  Furthermore, specify‐
             ing "none" will turn off packet authentication.

     IndirectData = yes | no (no)
             This option specifies whether other tinc daemons besides the one
             you specified with ConnectTo can make a direct connection to you.
             This is especially useful if you are behind a firewall and it is
             impossible to make a connection from the outside to your tinc
             daemon.  Otherwise, it is best to leave this option out or set it
             to no.

     MACLength = length (4)
             The length of the message authentication code used to authenti‐
             cate UDP packets.  Can be anything from "0" up to the length of
             the digest produced by the digest algorithm.

     PMTU = mtu (1514)
             This option controls the initial path MTU to this node.

     PMTUDiscovery = yes | no (yes)
             When this option is enabled, tinc will try to discover the path
             MTU to this node.  After the path MTU has been discovered, it
             will be enforced on the VPN.

     Port = port (655)
             The port number on which this tinc daemon is listening for incom‐
             ing connections.

     PublicKey = key [obsolete]
             The public RSA key of this tinc daemon.  It will be used to cryp‐
             tographically verify it’s identity and to set up a secure connec‐
             tion.

     PublicKeyFile = filename [obsolete]
             The file in which the public RSA key of this tinc daemon resides.

             From version 1.0pre4 on tinc will store the public key directly
             into the host configuration file in PEM format, the above two
             options then are not necessary.  Either the PEM format is used,
             or exactly one of the above two options must be specified in each
             host configuration file, if you want to be able to establish a
             connection with that host.

     Subnet = address[/prefixlength]
             The subnet which this tinc daemon will serve.  tinc tries to look
             up which other daemon it should send a packet to by searching the
             appropriate subnet.  If the packet matches a subnet, it will be
             sent to the daemon who has this subnet in his host configuration
             file.  Multiple Subnet variables can be specified.

             Subnets can either be single MAC, IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, in
             which case a subnet consisting of only that single address is
             assumed, or they can be a IPv4 or IPv6 network address with a
             prefixlength.  Shorthand notations are not supported.  For exam‐
             ple, IPv4 subnets must be in a form like 192.168.1.0/24, where
             192.168.1.0 is the network address and 24 is the number of bits
             set in the netmask.  Note that subnets like 192.168.1.1/24 are
             invalid!  Read a networking HOWTO/FAQ/guide if you don’t under‐
             stand this.  IPv6 subnets are notated like fec0:0:0:1:0:0:0:0/64.
             MAC addresses are notated like 0:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e.

     TCPOnly = yes | no (no)
             If this variable is set to yes, then the packets are tunnelled
             over the TCP connection instead of a UDP connection.  This is
             especially useful for those who want to run a tinc daemon from
             behind a masquerading firewall, or if UDP packet routing is dis‐
             abled somehow.  Setting this options also implicitly sets Indi‐
             rectData.

SCRIPTS
     Apart from reading the server and host configuration files, tinc can also
     run scripts at certain moments.  Under Windows (not Cygwin), the scripts
     should have the extension .bat.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc-up
             This is the most important script.  If it is present it will be
             executed right after the tinc daemon has been started and has
             connected to the virtual network device.  It should be used to
             set up the corresponding network interface, but can also be used
             to start other things.  Under Windows you can use the Network
             Connections control panel instead of creating this script.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc-down
             This script is started right before the tinc daemon quits.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/hosts/HOST-up
             This script is started when the tinc daemon with name HOST
             becomes reachable.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/hosts/HOST-down
             This script is started when the tinc daemon with name HOST
             becomes unreachable.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/host-up
             This script is started when any host becomes reachable.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/host-down
             This script is started when any host becomes unreachable.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/subnet-up
             This script is started when a Subnet becomes reachable.  The Sub‐
             net and the node it belongs to are passed in environment vari‐
             ables.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/subnet-down
             This script is started when a Subnet becomes unreachable.

     The scripts are started without command line arguments, but can make use
     of certain environment variables.  Under UNIX like operating systems the
     names of environment variables must be preceded by a $ in scripts.  Under
     Windows, in .bat files, they have to be put between % signs.

     NETNAME
             If a netname was specified, this environment variable contains
             it.

     NAME    Contains the name of this tinc daemon.

     DEVICE  Contains the name of the virtual network device that tinc uses.

     INTERFACE
             Contains the name of the virtual network interface that tinc
             uses.  This should be used for commands like ifconfig.

     NODE    When a host becomes (un)reachable, this is set to its name.  If a
             subnet becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the owner of that
             subnet.

     REMOTEADDRESS
             When a host becomes (un)reachable, this is set to its real
             address.

     REMOTEPORT
             When a host becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the port number
             it uses for communication with other tinc daemons.

     SUBNET  When a subnet becomes (un)reachable, this is set to the subnet.

FILES
     The most important files are:

     /etc/tinc/
             The top directory for configuration files.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc.conf
             The default name of the server configuration file for net
             NETNAME.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/hosts/
             Host configuration files are kept in this directory.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc-up
             If an executable file with this name exists, it will be executed
             right after the tinc daemon has connected to the virtual network
             device.  It can be used to set up the corresponding network
             interface.

     /etc/tinc/NETNAME/tinc-down
             If an executable file with this name exists, it will be executed
             right before the tinc daemon is going to close its connection to
             the virtual network device.
     tincd(8), http://www.tinc-vpn.org/, http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/nag2/.

     The full documentation for tinc is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If
     the info and tinc programs are properly installed at your site, the com‐
     mand info tinc should give you access to the complete manual.

     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.