SS-LOCAL(1)

💅 ss-local — the manual, but make it make sense

Hey bestie 🫶 so this is ss-local, straight out of the Shadowsocks-libev Manual, section 1. It's the little local-side client that makes your traffic look like it's going somewhere totally normal, and honestly? Iconic. Let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

ss-local — the shadowsocks client that runs as a socks5 proxy, and it's the libev port, periodt.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ss-local [-uv6] [-h|--help] [-s <server_host>] [-p <server_port>] [-l
<local_port>] [-k <password>] [-m <encrypt_method>] [-f <pid_file>] [-t
<timeout>] [-c <config_file>] [-i <interface>] [-a <user_name>] [-b
<local_address>] [-n <nofile>] [--fast-open] [--reuse-port] [--acl
<acl_config>] [--mtu <MTU>] [--no-delay] [--plugin <plugin_name>]
[--plugin-opts <plugin_options>] [--password <password>] [--key
<key_in_base64>]

That's the whole vibe in one block, no cap 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so Shadowsocks-libev is a lightweight and secure socks5 proxy — and when I say lightweight I mean it. It's a port of the original shadowsocks that clowwindy made, and it's written in pure C, taking full advantage of libev</civ> to serve you both high performance AND low resource consumption. The way it just does that 😭👑

Shadowsocks-libev is a whole squad — five components — and ss-local is the one that works as a standard socks5 proxy on local machines to proxy TCP traffic. That's its whole job and it ate fr fr 💅

Want the full lore? Check out shadowsocks-libev(8), bestie 🧚

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

Get comfy, there's a lot, but every single one is here because we do NOT skip details in this house 🎀

🌈 Server & local setup

• -s <server_host> — set the server's hostname or IP. That's where your traffic is headed ✨
• -p <server_port> — set the server's port number.
• -l <local_port> — set the local port number. This is the door on your machine 🚪
• -b <local_address> — pick the local address to use while this client is making outbound connections to the server. Very "which of my addresses am I leaving from" energy.

🔐 Passwords, keys & ciphers

• -k <password>, --password <password> — set the password. The server and the client gotta use the same password, bestie, or nothing clicks — like matching friendship bracelets 🫶
• --key <key_in_base64> — set the key directly. Heads up: the key should be encoded with URL-safe Base64. Don't come in here with regular Base64 and expect it to slay 🙈
• -m <encrypt_method> — set the cipher.

Shadowsocks-libev accepts 19 different ciphers, here they are in all their glory:

aes-128-gcm, aes-192-gcm, aes-256-gcm, rc4-md5, aes-128-cfb, aes-192-cfb, aes-256-cfb, aes-128-ctr, aes-192-ctr, aes-256-ctr, bf-cfb, camellia-128-cfb, camellia-192-cfb, camellia-256-cfb, chacha20-ietf-poly1305, xchacha20-ietf-poly1305, salsa20, chacha20 and chacha20-ietf.

The default cipher is chacha20-ietf-poly1305 — the main character cipher 👑

⚠️ If it's built with PolarSSL or custom OpenSSL libraries, some of these ciphers may not work. So like… vibe check your build first 💀

🧚 Running as someone else, or in the background

• -a <user_name> — run as a specific user.
• -f <pid_file> — start shadowsocks as a daemon with a specific pid file. Ghost mode 👻
• -t <timeout> — set the socket timeout in seconds. The default value is 60.
• -v — enable verbose mode. She's chatty and we love that for her 💬

📁 Config files & limits

• -c <config_file> — use a configuration file.

Refer to shadowsocks-libev(8) CONFIG FILE section for more details 🌸

• -n <number> — specify max number of open files.

Only available on Linux, bestie 🐧

🌐 Network interface stuff (the multi-interface tea)

• -i <interface> — send traffic through a specific network interface.

Real talk, here's the situation: say you've got three interfaces on your device — lo (127.0.0.1), eth0 (192.168.0.1) and eth1 (192.168.0.2). And meanwhile you configure ss-local to listen on 0.0.0.0:8388 and bind to eth1. That results in the traffic going out through eth1 — but not lo nor eth0. Slay 💅 This option is genuinely useful for controlling traffic in a multi-interface environment. Very "I choose who I talk to" energy.

📡 UDP, IPv6 & relay modes

• -u — enable UDP relay.
• -U — enable UDP relay and disable TCP relay. Both at once, she contains multitudes 😌
• -6 — resolve hostname to IPv6 address first. Six girlie 4 life 🦋

⚡ Speed & port tricks

• --fast-open — enable TCP fast open.

Only available with Linux kernel > 3.7.0 🔥

• --reuse-port — enable port reuse.

Only available with Linux kernel > 3.9.0 ✨

• --no-delay — enable TCP_NODELAY. Less waiting, more doing 💨
• --mptcp — enable Multipath TCP.

Only available with MPTCP enabled Linux kernel 🐧

🛡️ Access control & MTU

• --acl <acl_config> — enable ACL (Access Control List) and specify the config file. Your bouncer at the door 🚪
• --mtu <MTU> — specify the MTU of your network interface.

📦 Buffer sizes (yes, all four)

• --tcp-incoming-sndbuf <size> — set the TCP send buffer size for incoming connections.
• --tcp-incoming-rcvbuf <size> — set the TCP receive buffer size for incoming connections.
• --tcp-outgoing-sndbuf <size> — set the TCP send buffer size for outgoing connections.
• --tcp-outgoing-rcvbuf <size> — set the TCP receive buffer size for outgoing connections.

Incoming/outgoing × send/receive — the full set, we stan a complete collection 🎀

🔌 Plugins (experimental, we're being brave)

• --plugin <plugin_name> — enable SIP003 plugin. (Experimental) 🧪
• --plugin-opts <plugin_options> — set SIP003 plugin options. (Experimental) 🧪

🙋 Help

• -h, --help — print help message. When in doubt, ask for help, it's literally self care 💜

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⭐ EXAMPLE ⭐

ss-local(1) can be started from the command line and run in the foreground. Here's the example, exactly as it lives:

# Start ss-local with given parameters
ss-local -s example.com -p 12345 -l 1080 -k foobar -m aes-256-cfb

Copy it, paste it, tweak your own details, go live 🌸

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

Go give these a read too, iykyk:

• ss-server(1)
• ss-tunnel(1)
• ss-redir(1)
• ss-manager(1)
• shadowsocks-libev(8)
• iptables(8)
• /etc/shadowsocks-libev/config.json

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💖 and that's the whole page, bestie 💖

Cute little sign-off before you close the tab: this was Shadowsocks-libev 3.3.6, dated 10/11/2026, manual section SS-LOCAL(1) — go forth and proxy responsibly, mwah 😘🫶