This is the daemon of tinc, a secure virtual private network (VPN) project. When started, will read it's configuration file to determine what virtual subnets it has to serve and to what other tinc daemons it should connect. It will connect to the ethertap or tun/tap device and set up a socket for incoming connections. Optionally a script will be executed to further configure the virtual device. If that succeeds, it will detach from the controlling terminal and continue in the background, accepting and setting up connections to other tinc daemons that are part of the virtual private network. Under Windows (not Cygwin) tinc will install itself as a service, which will be restarted automatically after reboots.

-c, -config Ns = Ns DIR

Read configuration files from DIR instead of /etc/tinc/ .

-D, -no-detach

Don't fork and detach. This will also disable the automatic restart mechanism for fatal errors. If not mentioned otherwise, this will show log messages on the standard error output.

-d, -debug Ns [= Ns LEVEL]

Increase debug level or set it to LEVEL (see below).

-k, -kill Ns [= Ns SIGNAL]

Attempt to kill a running (optionally with the specified SIGNAL instead of SIGTERM) and exit. Under Windows (not Cygwin) the optional argument is ignored, the service will always be stopped and removed.

-n, -net Ns = Ns NETNAME

Connect to net NETNAME .

-K, -generate-keys Ns [= Ns BITS]

Generate public/private RSA keypair and exit. If BITS is omitted, the default length will be 1024 bits. When saving keys to existing files, tinc will not delete the old keys, you have to remove them manually.

-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.

--logfile Ns [= Ns FILE]

Write log entries to a file instead of to the system logging facility. If FILE is omitted, the default is /var/log/tinc. Ns NETNAME Ns .log.

--pidfile Ns = Ns FILE

Write PID to FILE instead of /var/run/tinc. Ns NETNAME Ns .pid. Under Windows this option will be ignored.

--bypass-security

Disables encryption and authentication of the meta protocol. Only useful for debugging.

--help

Display short list of options.

--version

Output version information and exit.

ALRM

Forces to try to connect to all uplinks immediately. Usually attempts to do this itself, but increases the time it waits between the attempts each time it failed, and if didn't succeed to connect to an uplink the first time after it started, it defaults to the maximum time of 15 minutes.

HUP

Partially rereads configuration files. Connections to hosts whose host config file are removed are closed. New outgoing connections specified in tinc.conf will be made.

INT

Temporarily increases debug level to 5. Send this signal again to revert to the original level.

USR1

Dumps the connection list to syslog.

USR2

Dumps virtual network device statistics, all known nodes, edges and subnets to syslog.

WINCH

Purges all information remembered about unreachable nodes.

The tinc daemon can send a lot of messages to the syslog. The higher the debug level, the more messages it will log. Each level inherits all messages of the previous level:

0

This will log a message indicating has started along with a version number. It will also log any serious error.

1

This will log all connections that are made with other tinc daemons.

2

This will log status and error messages from scripts and other tinc daemons.

3

This will log all requests that are exchanged with other tinc daemons. These include authentication, key exchange and connection list updates.

4

This will log a copy of everything received on the meta socket.

5

This will log all network traffic over the virtual private network.

/etc/tinc/

Directory containing the configuration files tinc uses. For more information, see tinc.conf(5) .

/var/run/tinc. Ns NETNAME Ns .pid

The PID of the currently running is stored in this file.

The BindToInterface option may not work correctly.

If you find any bugs, report them to tinc@tinc-vpn.org.

A lot, especially security auditing.

The full documentation for tinc is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and tinc programs are properly installed at your site, the command 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.

And thanks to many others for their contributions to tinc!