AA-COMPLAIN(8)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay so bestie, this is aa-complain(8) from the AppArmor manual, and it sets an AppArmor security profile to complain mode. That's literally the whole vibe — it's giving “complain, but make it logged” 💅.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

aa-complain <executable> [<executable> ...] [-d /path/to/profiles]
[--no-reload]

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -d, --dir /path/to/profiles — specifies where to look for the AppArmor security profile set. The default is /etc/apparmor.d, periodt 🎀
• --no-reload — do not reload the profile after modifying it. That's it, no cap 🦋

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

aa-complain is used to set the enforcement mode for one or more profiles to complain mode. In this mode security policy is not enforced but rather access violations are logged to the system log. It's lowkey the “we're not mad, just disappointed” mode 🔥

⚠️ note that deny rules will be enforced even in complain mode. Like, complain mode does not get you out of deny jail, bestie — those are still enforced, periodt 😭

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🐛 BUGS 🐛

If you find any bugs, please report them at <https://gitlab.com/apparmor/apparmor/-/issues>. Please and thank you, bestie 🫶

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

apparmor(7), apparmor.d(5), aa-enforce(1), aa-disable(1), aa_change_hat(2), and <https://wiki.apparmor.net>. Go off, read more ✨

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mwah 💋 — this page is from AppArmor 4.1.7, dated 2026-05-19. xoxo, your favorite Unix bestie 💅