conf/strongswan.conf.5.head.in

   1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "" "@PACKAGE_VERSION@" "strongSwan"
   2 .SH NAME
   3 strongswan.conf \- strongSwan configuration file
   4 .SH DESCRIPTION
   5 While the
   6 .IR ipsec.conf (5)
   7 configuration file is well suited to define IPsec related configuration
   8 parameters, it is not useful for other strongSwan applications to read options
   9 from this file.
  10 The file is hard to parse and only
  11 .I ipsec starter
  12 is capable of doing so. As the number of components of the strongSwan project
  13 is continually growing, a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that
  14 is easy to extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
  15 .IR strongswan.conf (5)
  16 was introduced which meets these requirements.
  17
  18 .SH SYNTAX
  19 The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical
  20 .B sections
  21 and a list of
  22 .B key/value pairs
  23 in each section. Each section has a name, followed by C-Style curly brackets
  24 defining the section body. Each section body contains a set of subsections
  25 and key/value pairs:
  26 .PP
  27 .EX
  28         settings := (section|keyvalue)*
  29         section  := name { settings }
  30         keyvalue := key = value\\n
  31 .EE
  32 .PP
  33 Values must be terminated by a newline.
  34 .PP
  35 Comments are possible using the \fB#\fP-character.
  36 .PP
  37 Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
  38 .PP
  39 .EX
  40         . , : { } = " # \\n \\t space
  41 .EE
  42 .PP
  43 An example file in this format might look like this:
  44 .PP
  45 .EX
  46         a = b
  47         section-one {
  48                 somevalue = asdf
  49                 subsection {
  50                         othervalue = xxx
  51                 }
  52                 # yei, a comment
  53                 yetanother = zz
  54         }
  55         section-two {
  56                 x = 12
  57         }
  58 .EE
  59 .PP
  60 Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.
  61
  62
  63 .SH REFERENCING OTHER SECTIONS
  64 It is possible to inherit settings and sections from another section. This
  65 feature is mainly useful in swanctl.conf (which uses the same file format).
  66 The syntax is as follows:
  67 .PP
  68 .EX
  69         section    := name : references { settings }
  70         references := absname[, absname]*
  71         absname    := name[.name]*
  72 .EE
  73 .PP
  74 All key/value pairs and all subsections of the referenced sections will be
  75 inherited by the section that references them via their absolute name. Values
  76 may be overridden in the section or any of its sub-sections (use an empty
  77 assignment to clear a value so its default value, if any, will apply). It is
  78 currently not possible to limit the inclusion level or clear/remove inherited
  79 sub-sections.
  80
  81 If the order is important (e.g. for auth rounds in a connection, if \fIround\fR
  82 is not used), it should be noted that inherited settings/sections will follow
  83 those defined in the current section (if multiple sections are referenced, their
  84 settings are enumerated left to right).
  85
  86 References are evaluated dynamically at runtime, so referring to sections later
  87 in the config file or included via other files is no problem.
  88
  89 Here is an example of how this might look like:
  90 .PP
  91 .EX
  92         conn-defaults {
  93                 # default settings for all conns (e.g. a cert, or IP pools)
  94         }
  95         eap-defaults {
  96                 # defaults if eap is used (e.g. a remote auth round)
  97         }
  98         child-defaults {
  99                 # defaults for child configs (e.g. traffic selectors)
 100         }
 101         connections {
 102                 conn-a : conn-defaults, eap-defaults {
 103                         # set/override stuff specific to this connection
 104                         children {
 105                                 child-a : child-defaults {
 106                                         # set/override stuff specific to this child
 107                                 }
 108                         }
 109                 }
 110                 conn-b : conn-defaults {
 111                         # set/override stuff specific to this connection
 112                         children {
 113                                 child-b : child-defaults {
 114                                         # set/override stuff specific to this child
 115                                 }
 116                         }
 117                 }
 118                 conn-c : connections.conn-a {
 119                         # everything is inherited, including everything conn-a
 120                         # already inherits from the sections it and its
 121                         # sub-section reference
 122                 }
 123         }
 124 .EE
 125 .PP
 126
 127 .SH INCLUDING FILES
 128 Using the
 129 .B include
 130 statement it is possible to include other files into strongswan.conf, e.g.
 131 .PP
 132 .EX
 133         include /some/path/*.conf
 134 .EE
 135 .PP
 136 If the file name is not an absolute path, it is considered to be relative
 137 to the directory of the file containing the include statement. The file name
 138 may include shell wildcards (see
 139 .IR sh (1)).
 140 Also, such inclusions can be nested.
 141 .PP
 142 Sections loaded from included files
 143 .I extend
 144 previously loaded sections; already existing values are
 145 .IR replaced .
 146 It is important to note that settings are added relative to the section the
 147 include statement is in.
 148 .PP
 149 As an example, the following three files result in the same final
 150 config as the one given above:
 151 .PP
 152 .EX
 153         a = b
 154         section-one {
 155                 somevalue = before include
 156                 include include.conf
 157         }
 158         include other.conf
 159
 160 include.conf:
 161         # settings loaded from this file are added to section-one
 162         # the following replaces the previous value
 163         somevalue = asdf
 164         subsection {
 165                 othervalue = yyy
 166         }
 167         yetanother = zz
 168
 169 other.conf:
 170         # this extends section-one and subsection
 171         section-one {
 172                 subsection {
 173                         # this replaces the previous value
 174                         othervalue = xxx
 175                 }
 176         }
 177         section-two {
 178                 x = 12
 179         }
 180 .EE
 181
 182 .SH READING VALUES
 183 Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key.
 184 With reference to the example above, accessing
 185 .B section-one.subsection.othervalue
 186 will return
 187 .BR xxx .
 188
 189 .SH DEFINED KEYS
 190 The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The default
 191 value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.