TANGD-ROTATE-KEYS(1)

📦
version 15 · 9 versions
, in arch rolling

💫 tangd-rotate-keys(1) — bestie's guide to rotating your tang keys 💫

okay so this is the manual page for tangd-rotate-keys, and honestly? it's giving "small tool, big responsibility." let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

tangd-rotate-keys — the little command that does the rotation of tang keys. that's it, that's the job 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

tangd-rotate-keys [-h] [-v] -d <KEYDIR>

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so here's the tea: to preserve the security of the system over the long run, you need to periodically rotate your keys. no cap. the precise interval at which you should rotate depends upon your application, key sizes and institutional policy — so it's not a one-size-fits-all situation, sadly 😭. for some common recommendations, see: https://www.keylength.com

tangd-rotate-keys generates new keys in the key database directory given by the -d option. that's typically /var/db/tang. it also rename the old keys to have a leading . in order to hide them from advertisement. (yes, a sneaky little dot. icon behavior honestly 👑)

Tang will immediately pick up all changes. No restart is required. slay, zero drama ✨

at this point, new client bindings will pick up the new keys and old clients can continue to utilize the old keys. once you are sure that all the old clients have been migrated to use the new keys, you can remove the old keys. but — and i need you to hear me on this one bestie 🚨 — be aware that removing the old keys while clients are still using them can result in data loss. You have been warned. like, officially warned, in writing, by the manpage. 💀

💜 OPTIONS 💜

  • -d <KEYDIR> — the directory with the keys, e.g. /var/db/tang 📁
  • -h — display the usage information. the "help me help you" flag 🫶
  • -v — verbose. display additional info on keys created/rotated. for the girlies who need to see the receipts 🔍

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Sergio Correia <scorreia@redhat.com>

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

tang(8)

and that's the whole page, bestie! this absolute classic of a manual page was brought to you by the 02/14/2026 build — go forth and rotate responsibly 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from