conf/strongswan.conf.5.head.in

.TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "" "@PACKAGE_VERSION@" "strongSwan"
.SH NAME
strongswan.conf \- strongSwan configuration file
.SH DESCRIPTION
While the
.IR ipsec.conf (5)
configuration file is well suited to define IPsec related configuration
parameters, it is not useful for other strongSwan applications to read options
from this file.
The file is hard to parse and only
.I ipsec starter
is capable of doing so. As the number of components of the strongSwan project
is continually growing, a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that
is easy to extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
.IR strongswan.conf (5)
was introduced which meets these requirements.

.SH SYNTAX
The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical
.B sections
and a list of
.B key/value pairs
in each section. Each section has a name, followed by C-Style curly brackets
defining the section body. Each section body contains a set of subsections
and key/value pairs:
.PP
.EX
	settings := (section|keyvalue)*
	section  := name { settings }
	keyvalue := key = value\\n
.EE
.PP
Values must be terminated by a newline.
.PP
Comments are possible using the \fB#\fP-character.
.PP
Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
.PP
.EX
	. , : { } = " # \\n \\t space
.EE
.PP
An example file in this format might look like this:
.PP
.EX
	a = b
	section-one {
		somevalue = asdf
		subsection {
			othervalue = xxx
		}
		# yei, a comment
		yetanother = zz
	}
	section-two {
		x = 12
	}
.EE
.PP
Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.

.SH NUMBER FORMATS
Options that define an integer value can be specified as decimal (the default)
or hexadecimal ("0x" prefix, upper- or lowercase letters are accepted).
Locale-dependent strings (e.g. the thousands separator of the current locale)
may also be accepted in locales other than "C".
.PP
Options that define a floating-point value can be specified as decimal (the
default) or hexadecimal ("0x" prefix, upper- or lowercase letters are accepted).
The radix character (decimal separator) in either case is locale-dependent,
usually ".".

.SH TIME FORMATS
Unless stated otherwise, options that define a time are specified in seconds.
The "s", "m", "h" and "d" suffixes may be used to automatically convert values
given in seconds, minutes, hours or days (for instance, instead of configuring
a rekey time of 4 hours as "14400" seconds, "4h" may be used).
.PP
There are some global options that don't accept these suffixes as they are
configured as integer values in seconds or milliseconds, or even as
floating-point numbers (e.g. the retransmission timeout). Options that accept
the suffixes have a corresponding default value.

.SH REFERENCING OTHER SECTIONS
It is possible to inherit settings and sections from another section. This
feature is mainly useful in swanctl.conf (which uses the same file format).
The syntax is as follows:
.PP
.EX
	section    := name : references { settings }
	references := absname[, absname]*
	absname    := name[.name]*
.EE
.PP
All key/value pairs and all subsections of the referenced sections will be
inherited by the section that references them via their absolute name. Values
may be overridden in the section or any of its sub-sections (use an empty
assignment to clear a value so its default value, if any, will apply). It is
currently not possible to limit the inclusion level or clear/remove inherited
sub-sections.

If the order is important (e.g. for auth rounds in a connection, if \fIround\fR
is not used), it should be noted that inherited settings/sections will follow
those defined in the current section (if multiple sections are referenced, their
settings are enumerated left to right).

References are evaluated dynamically at runtime, so referring to sections later
in the config file or included via other files is no problem.

Here is an example of how this might look like:
.PP
.EX
	conn-defaults {
		# default settings for all conns (e.g. a cert, or IP pools)
	}
	eap-defaults {
		# defaults if eap is used (e.g. a remote auth round)
	}
	child-defaults {
		# defaults for child configs (e.g. traffic selectors)
	}
	connections {
		conn-a : conn-defaults, eap-defaults {
			# set/override stuff specific to this connection
			children {
				child-a : child-defaults {
					# set/override stuff specific to this child
				}
			}
		}
		conn-b : conn-defaults {
			# set/override stuff specific to this connection
			children {
				child-b : child-defaults {
					# set/override stuff specific to this child
				}
			}
		}
		conn-c : connections.conn-a {
			# everything is inherited, including everything conn-a
			# already inherits from the sections it and its
			# sub-section reference
		}
	}
.EE
.PP

.SH INCLUDING FILES
Using the
.B include
statement it is possible to include other files into strongswan.conf, e.g.
.PP
.EX
	include /some/path/*.conf
.EE
.PP
If the file name is not an absolute path, it is considered to be relative
to the directory of the file containing the include statement. The file name
may include shell wildcards (see
.IR sh (1)).
Also, such inclusions can be nested.
.PP
Sections loaded from included files
.I extend
previously loaded sections; already existing values are
.IR replaced .
It is important to note that settings are added relative to the section the
include statement is in.
.PP
As an example, the following three files result in the same final
config as the one given above:
.PP
.EX
	a = b
	section-one {
		somevalue = before include
		include include.conf
	}
	include other.conf

include.conf:
	# settings loaded from this file are added to section-one
	# the following replaces the previous value
	somevalue = asdf
	subsection {
		othervalue = yyy
	}
	yetanother = zz

other.conf:
	# this extends section-one and subsection
	section-one {
		subsection {
			# this replaces the previous value
			othervalue = xxx
		}
	}
	section-two {
		x = 12
	}
.EE

.SH READING VALUES
Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key.
With reference to the example above, accessing
.B section-one.subsection.othervalue
will return
.BR xxx .

.SH DEFINED KEYS
The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The default
value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.