This is the info manual for @value{PACKAGE} version @value{VERSION}, a Virtual Private Network daemon.
-Copyright @copyright{} 1998-2009 Ivo Timmermans,
+Copyright @copyright{} 1998-2013 Ivo Timmermans,
Guus Sliepen <guus@@tinc-vpn.org> and
Wessel Dankers <wsl@@tinc-vpn.org>.
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
This is the info manual for @value{PACKAGE} version @value{VERSION}, a Virtual Private Network daemon.
-Copyright @copyright{} 1998-2009 Ivo Timmermans,
+Copyright @copyright{} 1998-2013 Ivo Timmermans,
Guus Sliepen <guus@@tinc-vpn.org> and
Wessel Dankers <wsl@@tinc-vpn.org>.
This problem can be solved by using @emph{virtual} networks. Virtual
networks can live on top of other networks, but they use encapsulation to
keep using their private address space so they do not interfere with
-the Internet. Mostly, virtual networks appear like a singe LAN, even though
+the Internet. Mostly, virtual networks appear like a single LAN, even though
they can span the entire world. But virtual networks can't be secured
by using firewalls, because the traffic that flows through it has to go
through the Internet, where other people can look at it.
@cindex release
For an up to date list of supported platforms, please check the list on
our website:
-@uref{http://www.tinc-vpn.org/platforms}.
+@uref{http://www.tinc-vpn.org/platforms/}.
@c
@c
@subsection Configuration of FreeBSD kernels
For FreeBSD version 4.1 and higher, tun and tap drivers are included in the default kernel configuration.
-Using tap devices is recommended.
+The tap driver can be loaded with @code{kldload if_tap}, or by adding @code{if_tap_load="YES"} to @file{/boot/loader.conf}.
@c ==================================================================
but with recent versions of OpenBSD,
a tun device can act as a tap device by setting the link0 option with ifconfig.
+
@c ==================================================================
@node Configuration of NetBSD kernels
@subsection Configuration of NetBSD kernels
by the OpenSSL library.
If this library is not installed, you wil get an error when configuring
-tinc for build. Support for running tinc without having OpenSSL
+tinc for build. Support for running tinc with other cryptographic libraries
installed @emph{may} be added in the future.
You can use your operating system's package manager to install this if
For the optional compression of UDP packets, tinc uses the functions provided
by the zlib library.
-If this library is not installed, you wil get an error when configuring
-tinc for build. Support for running tinc without having zlib
-installed @emph{may} be added in the future.
+If this library is not installed, you wil get an error when running the
+configure script. You can either install the zlib library, or disable support
+for zlib compression by using the "--disable-zlib" option when running the
+configure script. Note that if you disable support for zlib, the resulting
+binary will not work correctly on VPNs where zlib compression is used.
You can use your operating system's package manager to install this if
available. Make sure you install the development AND runtime versions
@subsection lzo
@cindex lzo
-Another form of compression is offered using the lzo library.
+Another form of compression is offered using the LZO library.
-If this library is not installed, you wil get an error when configuring
-tinc for build. Support for running tinc without having lzo
-installed @emph{may} be added in the future.
+If this library is not installed, you wil get an error when running the
+configure script. You can either install the LZO library, or disable support
+for LZO compression by using the "--disable-lzo" option when running the
+configure script. Note that if you disable support for LZO, the resulting
+binary will not work correctly on VPNs where LZO compression is used.
You can use your operating system's package manager to install this if
available. Make sure you install the development AND runtime versions
If you cannot use one of the precompiled packages, or you want to compile tinc
for yourself, you can use the source. The source is distributed under
the GNU General Public License (GPL). Download the source from the
-@uref{http://www.tinc-vpn.org/download, download page}, which has
+@uref{http://www.tinc-vpn.org/download/, download page}, which has
the checksums of these files listed; you may wish to check these with
md5sum before continuing.
In order to build tinc on Darwin, you need to install the MacOS/X Developer Tools
from @uref{http://developer.apple.com/tools/macosxtools.html} and
-a recent version of Fink from @uref{http://fink.sourceforge.net/}.
+a recent version of Fink from @uref{http://www.finkproject.org/}.
After installation use fink to download and install the following packages:
autoconf25, automake, dlcompat, m4, openssl, zlib and lzo.
Make sure you have an adequate understanding of networks in general.
@cindex Network Administrators Guide
A good resource on networking is the
-@uref{http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/nag2/, Linux Network Administrators Guide}.
+@uref{http://www.tldp.org/LDP/nag2/, Linux Network Administrators Guide}.
If you have everything clearly pictured in your mind,
proceed in the following order:
in the `=' sign, but doing so improves readability. If you leave it
out, remember to replace it with at least one space character.
+The server configuration is complemented with host specific configuration (see
+the next section). Although all host configuration options for the local node
+listed in this document can also be put in
+@file{@value{sysconfdir}/tinc/@var{netname}/tinc.conf}, it is recommended to
+put host specific configuration options in the host configuration file, as this
+makes it easy to exchange with other nodes.
+
In this section all valid variables are listed in alphabetical order.
The default value is given between parentheses,
other comments are between square brackets.
both IPv4 and IPv6 or just IPv6 listening sockets will be created.
@cindex BindToAddress
-@item BindToAddress = <@var{address}> [experimental]
+@item BindToAddress = <@var{address}> [<@var{port}>] [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 variable.
+Multiple BindToAddress variables may be specified,
+in which case listening sockets for each specified address are made.
+
+If no @var{port} is specified, the socket will be bound to the port specified by the Port option,
+or to port 655 if neither is given.
+To only bind to a specific port but not to a specific address, use "*" for the @var{address}.
This option may not work on all platforms.
This option may not work on all platforms.
+@cindex Broadcast
+@item Broadcast = <no | mst | direct> (mst) [experimental]
+This option selects the way broadcast packets are sent to other daemons.
+@emph{NOTE: all nodes in a VPN must use the same Broadcast mode, otherwise routing loops can form.}
+
+@table @asis
+@item no
+Broadcast packets are never sent to other nodes.
+
+@item mst
+Broadcast packets are sent and forwarded via the VPN's Minimum Spanning Tree.
+This ensures broadcast packets reach all nodes.
+
+@item direct
+Broadcast packets are sent directly to all nodes that can be reached directly.
+Broadcast packets received from other nodes are never forwarded.
+If the IndirectData option is also set, broadcast packets will only be sent to nodes which we have a meta connection to.
+@end table
+
@cindex ConnectTo
@item ConnectTo = <@var{name}>
Specifies which other tinc daemon to connect to on startup.
tinc won't try to connect to other daemons at all,
and will instead just listen for incoming connections.
+@cindex DecrementTTL
+@item DecrementTTL = <yes | no> (no) [experimental]
+When enabled, tinc will decrement the Time To Live field in IPv4 packets, or the Hop Limit field in IPv6 packets,
+before forwarding a received packet to the virtual network device or to another node,
+and will drop packets that have a TTL value of zero,
+in which case it will send an ICMP Time Exceeded packet back.
+
+Do not use this option if you use switch mode and want to use IPv6.
+
@cindex Device
@item Device = <@var{device}> (@file{/dev/tap0}, @file{/dev/net/tun} or other depending on platform)
The virtual network device to use.
See also @ref{Device files}.
@cindex DeviceType
-@item DeviceType = <tun|tunnohead|tunifhead|tap> (only supported on BSD platforms)
+@item DeviceType = <@var{type}> (platform dependent)
The type of the virtual network device.
-Tinc will normally automatically 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.
+Tinc will normally automatically select the right type of tun/tap interface, and this option should not be used.
+However, this option can be used to select one of the special interface types, if support for them is compiled in.
@table @asis
-@item tun
+@cindex dummy
+@item dummy
+Use a dummy interface.
+No packets are ever read or written to a virtual network device.
+Useful for testing, or when setting up a node that only forwards packets for other nodes.
+
+@cindex raw_socket
+@item raw_socket
+Open a raw socket, and bind it to a pre-existing
+@var{Interface} (eth0 by default).
+All packets are read from this interface.
+Packets received for the local node are written to the raw socket.
+However, at least on Linux, the operating system does not process IP packets destined for the local host.
+
+@cindex multicast
+@item multicast
+Open a multicast UDP socket and bind it to the address and port (separated by spaces) and optionally a TTL value specified using @var{Device}.
+Packets are read from and written to this multicast socket.
+This can be used to connect to UML, QEMU or KVM instances listening on the same multicast address.
+Do NOT connect multiple tinc daemons to the same multicast address, this will very likely cause routing loops.
+Also note that this can cause decrypted VPN packets to be sent out on a real network if misconfigured.
+
+@cindex UML
+@item uml (not compiled in by default)
+Create a UNIX socket with the filename specified by
+@var{Device}, or @file{@value{localstatedir}/run/@var{netname}.umlsocket}
+if not specified.
+Tinc will wait for a User Mode Linux instance to connect to this socket.
+
+@cindex VDE
+@item vde (not compiled in by default)
+Uses the libvdeplug library to connect to a Virtual Distributed Ethernet switch,
+using the UNIX socket specified by
+@var{Device}, or @file{@value{localstatedir}/run/vde.ctl}
+if not specified.
+@end table
+
+Also, in case tinc does not seem to correctly interpret packets received from the virtual network device,
+it can be used to change the way packets are interpreted:
+
+@table @asis
+@item tun (BSD and Linux)
Set type to tun.
Depending on the platform, this can either be with or without an address family header (see below).
@cindex tunnohead
-@item tunnohead
+@item tunnohead (BSD)
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 packets cannot be read from or written to the device in this mode.
@cindex tunifhead
-@item tunifhead
+@item tunifhead (BSD)
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 family,
followed by an IP header.
This mode should support both IPv4 and IPv6 packets.
-@item tap
+@item tap (BSD and Linux)
Set type to tap.
Tinc will expect packets read from the virtual network device
to start with an Ethernet header.
@end table
+@cindex DirectOnly
+@item DirectOnly = <yes|no> (no) [experimental]
+When this option is enabled, packets that cannot be sent directly to the destination node,
+but which would have to be forwarded by an intermediate node, are dropped instead.
+When combined with the IndirectData option,
+packets for nodes for which we do not have a meta connection with are also dropped.
+
+@cindex Forwarding
+@item Forwarding = <off|internal|kernel> (internal) [experimental]
+This option selects the way indirect packets are forwarded.
+
+@table @asis
+@item off
+Incoming packets that are not meant for the local node,
+but which should be forwarded to another node, are dropped.
+
+@item internal
+Incoming packets that are meant for another node are forwarded by tinc internally.
+
+This is the default mode, and unless you really know you need another forwarding mode, don't change it.
+
+@item kernel
+Incoming packets are always sent to the TUN/TAP device, even if the packets are not for the local node.
+This is less efficient, but allows the kernel to apply its routing and firewall rules on them,
+and can also help debugging.
+@end table
+
@cindex GraphDumpFile
@item GraphDumpFile = <@var{filename}> [experimental]
If this option is present,
it does a lookup if your DNS server is not responding.
This does not affect resolving hostnames to IP addresses from the
-configuration file.
+configuration file, but whether hostnames should be resolved while logging.
@cindex Interface
@item Interface = <@var{interface}>
Under Windows, this variable is used to select which network interface will be used.
If you specified a Device, this variable is almost always already correctly set.
+@cindex LocalDiscovery
+@item LocalDiscovery = <yes | no> (no) [experimental]
+When enabled, tinc will try to detect peers that are on the same local network.
+This will allow direct communication using LAN addresses, even if both peers are behind a NAT
+and they only ConnectTo a third node outside the NAT,
+which normally would prevent the peers from learning each other's LAN address.
+
+Currently, local discovery is implemented by sending broadcast packets to the LAN during path MTU discovery.
+This feature may not work in all possible situations.
+
@cindex Mode
@item Mode = <router|switch|hub> (router)
This option selects the way packets are routed to other daemons.
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 _).
+If Name starts with a $, then the contents of the environment variable that follows will be used.
+In that case, invalid characters will be converted to underscores.
+If Name is $HOST, but no such environment variable exist,
+the hostname will be read using the gethostnname() system call.
+
@cindex PingInterval
@item PingInterval = <@var{seconds}> (60)
The number of seconds of inactivity that tinc will wait before sending a
generated by @samp{tincd --generate-keys}. It must be a full path, not a
relative directory.
-Note that there must be exactly one of PrivateKey
-or PrivateKeyFile
-specified in the configuration file.
-
@cindex ProcessPriority
@item ProcessPriority = <low|normal|high>
When this option is used the priority of the tincd process will be adjusted.
Increasing the priority may help to reduce latency and packet loss on the VPN.
+@cindex Proxy
+@item Proxy = socks4 | socks5 | http | exec @var{...} [experimental]
+Use a proxy when making outgoing connections.
+The following proxy types are currently supported:
+
+@table @asis
+@cindex socks4
+@item socks4 <@var{address}> <@var{port}> [<@var{username}>]
+Connects to the proxy using the SOCKS version 4 protocol.
+Optionally, a @var{username} can be supplied which will be passed on to the proxy server.
+
+@cindex socks5
+@item socks5 <@var{address}> <@var{port}> [<@var{username}> <@var{password}>]
+Connect to the proxy using the SOCKS version 5 protocol.
+If a @var{username} and @var{password} are given, basic username/password authentication will be used,
+otherwise no authentication will be used.
+
+@cindex http
+@item http <@var{address}> <@var{port}>
+Connects to the proxy and sends a HTTP CONNECT request.
+
+@cindex exec
+@item exec <@var{command}>
+Executes the given command which should set up the outgoing connection.
+The environment variables @env{NAME}, @env{NODE}, @env{REMOTEADDRES} and @env{REMOTEPORT} are available.
+@end table
+
+@cindex ReplayWindow
+@item ReplayWindow = <bytes> (16)
+This is the size of the replay tracking window for each remote node, in bytes.
+The window is a bitfield which tracks 1 packet per bit, so for example
+the default setting of 16 will track up to 128 packets in the window. In high
+bandwidth scenarios, setting this to a higher value can reduce packet loss from
+the interaction of replay tracking with underlying real packet loss and/or
+reordering. Setting this to zero will disable replay tracking completely and
+pass all traffic, but leaves tinc vulnerable to replay-based attacks on your
+traffic.
+
+
+@cindex StrictSubnets
+@item StrictSubnets = <yes|no> (no) [experimental]
+When this option is enabled tinc will only use Subnet statements which are
+present in the host config files in the local
+@file{@value{sysconfdir}/tinc/@var{netname}/hosts/} directory.
+
@cindex TunnelServer
@item TunnelServer = <yes|no> (no) [experimental]
When this option is enabled tinc will no longer forward information between other tinc daemons,
-and will only allow nodes and subnets on the VPN which are present in the
+and will only allow connections with nodes for which host config files are present in the local
@file{@value{sysconfdir}/tinc/@var{netname}/hosts/} directory.
+Setting this options also implicitly sets StrictSubnets.
+
+@cindex UDPRcvBuf
+@item UDPRcvBuf = <bytes> (OS default)
+Sets the socket receive buffer size for the UDP socket, in bytes.
+If unset, the default buffer size will be used by the operating system.
+
+@cindex UDPSndBuf
+@item UDPSndBuf = <bytes> Pq OS default
+Sets the socket send buffer size for the UDP socket, in bytes.
+If unset, the default buffer size will be used by the operating system.
@end table
Furthermore, specifying "none" will turn off packet encryption.
It is best to use only those ciphers which support CBC mode.
+@cindex ClampMSS
+@item ClampMSS = <yes|no> (yes)
+This option specifies whether tinc should clamp the maximum segment size (MSS)
+of TCP packets to the path MTU. This helps in situations where ICMP
+Fragmentation Needed or Packet too Big messages are dropped by firewalls.
+
@cindex Compression
@item Compression = <@var{level}> (0)
This option sets the level of compression used for UDP packets.
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 example, 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 understand this.
-IPv6 subnets are notated like fec0:0:0:1:0:0:0:0/64.
+IPv6 subnets are notated like fec0:0:0:1::/64.
MAC addresses are notated like 0:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e.
@cindex CIDR notation
Prefixlength is the number of bits set to 1 in the netmask part; for
example: netmask 255.255.255.0 would become /24, 255.255.252.0 becomes
/22. This conforms to standard CIDR notation as described in
-@uref{ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1519.txt, RFC1519}
+@uref{http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1519.txt, RFC1519}
@cindex Subnet weight
A Subnet can be given a weight to indicate its priority over identical Subnets
Note that the IP addresses of eth0 and tap0 are the same.
This is quite possible, if you make sure that the netmasks of the interfaces are different.
-It is in fact recommended to give give both real internal network interfaces and tap interfaces the same IP address,
+It is in fact recommended to give both real internal network interfaces and tap interfaces the same IP address,
since that will make things a lot easier to remember and set up.
@end example
Note here that the internal address (on eth0) doesn't have to be the
-same as on the tap0 device. Also, ConnectTo is given so that no-one can
-connect to this node.
+same as on the tap0 device. Also, ConnectTo is given so that this node will
+always try to connect to BranchA.
On all hosts, in @file{@value{sysconfdir}/tinc/company/hosts/BranchB}:
the service will always be stopped and removed.
@item -n, --net=@var{netname}
-Use configuration for net @var{netname}. @xref{Multiple networks}.
+Use configuration for net @var{netname}.
+This will let tinc read all configuration files from
+@file{@value{sysconfdir}/tinc/@var{netname}/}.
+Specifying . for @var{netname} is the same as not specifying any @var{netname}.
+@xref{Multiple networks}.
@item -K, --generate-keys[=@var{bits}]
Generate public/private keypair of @var{bits} length. If @var{bits} is not specified,
but will default to the configuration directory (you can use the -c or -n option
in combination with -K). After that, tinc will quit.
+@item -o, --option=[@var{HOST}.]@var{KEY}=@var{VALUE}
+Without specifying a @var{HOST}, this will set server configuration variable @var{KEY} to @var{VALUE}.
+If specified as @var{HOST}.@var{KEY}=@var{VALUE},
+this will set the host configuration variable @var{KEY} of the host named @var{HOST} to @var{VALUE}.
+This option can be used more than once to specify multiple configuration variables.
+
@item -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.
Partially rereads configuration files.
Connections to hosts whose host config file are removed are closed.
New outgoing connections specified in @file{tinc.conf} will be made.
+If the --logfile option is used, this will also close and reopen the log file,
+useful when log rotation is used.
@item INT
Temporarily increases debug level to 5.
@tab @code{netsh interface ip set address} @var{interface} @code{static} @var{address} @var{netmask}
@end multitable
-
For IPv6 addresses:
@multitable {Darwin (MacOS/X)} {ifconfig route add -bla network address netmask netmask prefixlength interface}
@tab @code{netsh interface ipv6 add address} @var{interface} @code{static} @var{address}/@var{prefixlength}
@end multitable
+On some platforms, when running tinc in switch mode, the VPN interface must be set to tap mode with an ifconfig command:
+
+@multitable {Darwin (MacOS/X)} {ifconfig route add -bla network address netmask netmask prefixlength interface}
+@item OpenBSD
+@tab @code{ifconfig} @var{interface} @code{link0}
+@end multitable
+
+On Linux, it is possible to create a persistent tun/tap interface which will
+continue to exist even if tinc quit, although this is normally not required.
+It can be useful to set up a tun/tap interface owned by a non-root user, so
+tinc can be started without needing any root privileges at all.
+
+@multitable {Darwin (MacOS/X)} {ifconfig route add -bla network address netmask netmask prefixlength interface}
+@item Linux
+@tab @code{ip tuntap add dev} @var{interface} @code{mode} @var{tun|tap} @code{user} @var{username}
+@end multitable
@c ==================================================================
@node Routes
projects / tinc / blobdiff