1tor-gencert(1) tor-gencert(1)
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6 tor-gencert - Generate certs and keys for Tor directory authorities
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10 tor-gencert [-h|--help] [-v] [-r|--reuse] [--create-identity-key] [-i
11 id_file] [-c cert_file] [-m num] [-a address:port]
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15 tor-gencert generates certificates and private keys for use by Tor
16 directory authorities running the v3 Tor directory protocol, as used by
17 Tor 0.2.0 and later. If you are not running a directory authority, you
18 don't need to use tor-gencert.
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20 Every directory authority has a long term authority identity key (which
21 is distinct from the identity key it uses as a Tor server); this key
22 should be kept offline in a secure location. It is used to certify
23 shorter-lived signing keys, which are kept online and used by the
24 directory authority to sign votes and consensus documents.
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26 After you use this program to generate a signing key and a certificate,
27 copy those files to the keys subdirectory of your Tor process, and send
28 Tor a SIGHUP signal. DO NOT COPY THE IDENTITY KEY.
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32 -v Display verbose output.
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34 -h or --help
35 Display help text and exit.
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37 -r or --reuse
38 Generate a new certificate, but not a new signing key. This can
39 be used to change the address or lifetime associated with a
40 given key.
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42 --create-identity-key
43 Generate a new identity key. You should only use this option
44 the first time you run tor-gencert; in the future, you should
45 use the identity key that's already there.
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47 -i FILENAME
48 Read the identity key from the specified file. If the file is
49 not present and --create-identity-key is provided, create the
50 identity key in the specified file. Default: "./authority_iden‐
51 tity_key"
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53 -s FILENAME
54 Write the signing key to the specified file. Default:
55 "./authority_signing_key"
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57 -c FILENAME
58 Write the certificate to the specified file. Default:
59 "./authority_certificate"
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61 -m NUM Number of months that the certificate should be valid. Default:
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64 --passphrase-fd FILEDES
65 Filedescriptor to read the file descriptor from. Ends at the
66 first NUL or newline. Default: read from the terminal.
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68 -a address:port
69 If provided, advertise the address:port combination as this
70 authority's preferred directory port in its certificate. If the
71 address is a hostname, the hostname is resolved to an IP before
72 it's published.
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76 This probably doesn't run on Windows. That's not a big issue, since we
77 don't really want authorities to be running on Windows anyway.
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81 tor(1)
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83 See also the "dir-spec.txt" file, distributed with Tor.
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87 Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>, Nick Mathewson <nickm@alum.mit.edu>.
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91Jan-2008 tor-gencert(1)