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<!ENTITY sysdir SYSTEM "sysdir.xml">
<!ENTITY userdir SYSTEM "userdir.xml">
]>
<refentry id="pkcs11-conf">
<refentryinfo>
<title>pkcs11.conf</title>
<productname>p11-kit</productname>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<contrib>Maintainer</contrib>
<firstname>Stef</firstname>
<surname>Walter</surname>
<email>stef@thewalter.net</email>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>pkcs11.conf</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo class="manual">System Files</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>pkcs11.conf</refname>
<refpurpose>Configuration files for PKCS#11 modules</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsect1 id="pkcs11-conf-description">
<title>Description</title>
<para>The <command>pkcs11.conf</command> configuration files are a standard
way to configure PKCS#11 modules.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="config-format">
<title>File format</title>
<para>A complete configuration consists of several files. These files are
text files. Since <literal>p11-kit</literal> is built to be used in all
sorts of environments and at very low levels of the software stack, we
cannot make use of high level configuration APIs that you may find on a
modern desktop.</para>
<para>Each setting in the config file is specified consists of a name and
a value. The name is a simple string consisting of characters and dashes.
The name consists of alpha numeric characters, dot, hyphen and
underscore.</para>
<para>The value is specified after the name on the same line, separated
from it by a <literal>:</literal> (colon). White space between the
name and value is ignored.</para>
<para>Blank lines are ignored. White space at the beginning or end of
lines is stripped. Lines that begin with a <literal>#</literal> character
are ignored as comments. Comments are not recognized when they come after
a value on a line.</para>
<para>A fictitious module configuration file might look like:</para>
<programlisting>
module: module.so
# Here is a comment
managed: true
setting.2: A long value with text.
x-custom : text
</programlisting>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="config-module">
<title>Module Configuration</title>
<para>Each configured PKCS#11 module has its own config file. These files
can be <link linkend="config-locations">placed in various locations</link>.</para>
<para>The filename of the configuration file may consist of upper and lowercase letters
underscore, comma, dash and dots. The first characters needs to be an alphanumeric,
the filename should end with a <literal>.module</literal> extension.</para>
<para>Most importantly each config file specifies the path of the PKCS#11 module to
load. A module config file has the following fields:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>module:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>The filename of the PKCS#11 module to load.
This should include an extension like <literal>.so</literal></para>
<para>If this value is blank, then the module will be ignored.
This can be used in the user configs to override loading of a module
specified in the system configuration.</para>
<para>If this is a relative path, then the module will be loaded
from the <link linkend="devel-paths-modules">default module directory</link>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>critical:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Set to <literal>yes</literal> if the module is critical and
required to load. If a critical module fails to load or initialize,
then the loading process for all registered modules will abort and
return an error code.</para>
<para>This argument is optional and defaults to <literal>no</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>enable-in:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>A comma and/or space separated list of names of programs that
this module should only be loaded in. The module will not be loaded
for other programs using p11-kit. The base name of the process executable
should be used here, for example
<literal>seahorse, ssh</literal>.</para>
<para>This option can also be used to control whether the module will be loaded by <link linkend="sharing">the proxy module</link>. To enable loading only from the proxy module, specify <literal>p11-kit-proxy</literal> as the value.</para>
<para>This is not a security feature. The argument is optional. If
not present, then any process will load the module.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>disable-in:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>A comma and/or space separated list of names of programs that
this module should not be loaded in. The module will be loaded for any
other programs using p11-kit. The base name of the process
executable should be used here, for example
<literal>firefox, thunderbird-bin</literal>.</para>
<para>This option can also be used to control whether the module will be loaded by <link linkend="sharing">the proxy module</link>. To disable loading from the proxy module, specify <literal>p11-kit-proxy</literal> as the value.</para>
<para>This is not a security feature. The argument is optional. If
not present, then any process will load the module.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>managed:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Set to <literal>no</literal> if the module is not to be managed by
p11-kit. Making a module unmanaged is not recommended, and will cause
problems if multiple callers in a single process share a PKCS#11 module.</para>
<para>This argument is optional and defaults to <literal>yes</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>priority:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>The value should be an integer. When lists of modules are
returned to a caller of p11-kit, modules with a higher number are sorted
first. When applications search modules for certificates, keys and
trust policy information, this setting will affect what find
first.</para>
<para>This argument is optional, and defaults to zero. Modules
with the same <option>priority</option> option will be sorted
alphabetically.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="option-remote">
<term><option>remote:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Instead of loading the PKCS#11 module locally, run the module
remotely.</para>
<para>Specify a command to run, prefixed with <literal>|</literal> a pipe.
The command must speak the p11-kit remoting protocol on its standard in
and standard out. For example:</para>
<programlisting>
remote: |ssh user@remote p11-kit remote /path/to/module.so
</programlisting>
<para>Other forms of remoting will appear in later p11-kit releases.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>trust-policy:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Set to <literal>yes</literal> to use use this module as a source
of trust policy information such as certificate anchors and black lists.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="option-log-calls">
<term><option>log-calls:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Set to <literal>yes</literal> to write a log to stderr of all the
calls into the module. This is only supported for managed modules.</para>
<para>This argument is optional and defaults to <literal>no</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Do not specify both <literal>enable-in</literal> and <literal>disable-in</literal>
for the same module.</para>
<para>Other fields may be present, but it is recommended that field names
that are not specified in this document start with a <literal>x-</literal>
prefix.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="config-global">
<title>Global Configuration</title>
<para>A global configuration may also be present. This file contains settings
that are not related to a single PKCS#11 module. The location(s) of the
global configuration are described below. The global configuration file
can contain the following fields:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>user-config:</option></term>
<listitem><para>This will be equal to one of the following values:
<literal>none</literal>, <literal>merge</literal>,
<literal>only</literal>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>managed:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Set to <literal>yes</literal> or <literal>no</literal> to
force all modules to be managed or unmanaged by p11-kit. Setting this
setting in a global configuration file will override the
<literal>managed</literal> setting in the individual module configuration
files. Making modules unmanaged is not recommended, and will cause
problems if multiple callers in a single process share a PKCS#11
module.</para>
<para>This argument is optional.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>log-calls:</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Set to <literal>yes</literal> to write a log to stderr of all the
calls into all configured modules. This is only supported for managed
modules.</para>
<para>This argument is optional.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Other fields may be present, but it is recommended that field names
that are not specified in this document start with a <literal>x-</literal>
prefix.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="config-locations">
<title>Configuration Files</title>
<para>Each configured PKCS#11 module has its own config file. These
files are placed in a directory. In addition a global config file exists.
There is a system configuration consisting of the various module config
files and a file for global configuration. Optionally each user can provide
additional configuration or override the system configuration.</para>
<para>The system global configuration file is usually in
<literal>&sysdir;/pkcs11.conf</literal> and the user global
configuration file is in <literal>&userdir;/pkcs11.conf</literal> in the
user's home directory.</para>
<para>The module config files are usually located in the
<literal>&sysdir;/modules</literal> directory, with one configuration
file per module. In addition the <literal>&userdir;/modules</literal> directory
can be used for modules installed by the user.</para>
<para>Note that user configuration files are not loaded from the home
directory if running inside a setuid or setgid program.</para>
<para>The default system config file and module directory can be changed
when building p11-kit. Always
<link linkend="devel-paths">lookup these paths</link> using
<literal>pkg-config</literal>.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pkcs11-conf-see-also">
<title>See also</title>
<simplelist type="inline">
<member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>p11-kit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
</simplelist>
<para>Further details available in the p11-kit online documentation at
<ulink url="https://p11-glue.github.io/p11-glue/p11-kit/manual/">https://p11-glue.github.io/p11-glue/p11-kit/manual/</ulink>.
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>