"Name" directive in tinc.conf

[Guus Sliepen]

On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 09:49:04AM -0400, Nikolaus Rath wrote:

> According to http://tinc-vpn.org/documentation/tinc_4.html:
> 
> ,----
> | Name = <name> [required]
> | |     This is a symbolic name for this connection. The name should consist
> |     only of alfanumeric and underscore characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and _). 
> `----
> 
> However, if I set an arbitrary name, I get
> 
> # tincd -D -n hbt -d
> tincd 1.0.11 (Nov 18 2009 03:31:26) starting, debug level 1
> Cannot open config file /etc/tinc/hbt/hosts/hbt: No such file or directory
> Cannot open host configuration file for myself!
> Terminating
> 
> If I set 'Name' to the file that describes the local host as the error
> message suggest, things seems to work. But I'm a bit confused as to why
> tinc may need that file.. the private key is not in there, and address,
> compression, cipher etc. don't seem to apply either.
> 
> Error in the documentation, or did I misunderstand something?

Actually you can put Compression, Cipher and so on in that file. Before version
1.0.14, that was the only place where you could put those options. Since
1.0.14, you can also put those options in tinc.conf.

You are right that the local node may not have any need for its own host config
file, but nodes that you ConnectTo do need that file (it should contain at
least your pubblic key).  So it is best to have it anyway, and indeed the
filename of that config file must match the Name you use in tinc.conf.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet / with kind regards,
     Guus Sliepen <guus at tinc-vpn.org>
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