ekeydctl(8)
π ekeydctl β the Entropy Key Daemon Control tool, section 8 of the System Manager's Manual π
okay bestie, sit down, we're doing entropy today and it's gonna be iconic π
β¨ NAME β¨
ekeydctl β the Entropy Key Daemon Control tool π¦ (yes that's the whole name, it's giving "I do one job and I slay at it")
β¨ SYNOPSIS β¨
ekeydctl add DeviceNode |addall KeyDirPath |list |remove Identifier
|stats Identifier |keyring KeyRingFile |shutdown
so like, pick a verb, hand it an argument (or don't, some of them are self-sufficient π ), and go. no cap, that's the whole interface.
β¨ DESCRIPTION β¨
ekeydctl is a tool which interacts with the ekeyd using a local unix domain socket. π«Ά
that's it. that's the vibe. it talks to the daemon over a unix socket, local only, very "we keep it in the group chat" energy.
β¨ OPTIONS β¨
okay here's the menu, no substitutions, everything's on the list:
add DeviceNodeβ add an Entropy Key to be managed by theekeyddaemon. the argument is the device node of the key, e.g./dev/entropykey/AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAπ₯addall DevicePathβ add a number of Entopy Keys to be managed by theekeyddaemon. the argument is the path to a directory containing the device nodes to be added, e.g./dev/entropykeyβ it's the "add everyone in the building" option, main character energy for real β¨listβ list all the entropy keys attached to theekeyddaemon. roll call πremove Identifierβ remove an Entropy Key from management by theekeyddaemon. the argument may be the device node, the serial number of the key, or the numeric ID as shown in thelistcommand. so flexible, we love options πstats Identifierβ show statistics for an Entropy Key. the argument may be the device node, the serial number of the key, or the numeric ID as shown in thelistcommand. (same three flavours of identifier, iconic consistency π)keyring Keyringβ re-load keyring entries from a keyring file. the argument is to a keyring file. any existing connections will not be affected. π«Ά (chill, it's a soft refresh, nobody's getting dropped)shutdownβ shut the entropy key daemon down. π goodbye bestie, it's been real
β¨ STATISTIC VARIABLES β¨
the stats command produces a list of key and value pairs. each variable gives some information about the selected Entropy Key. so many little numbers, we're so obsessed πΈ
BytesReadβ the total number of bytes read from the Entropy Key device.BytesWrittenβ the total number of bytes written to the Entropy Key device.ConnectionNoncesβ the number of session key nonces issued by the host software.ConnectionPacketsβ the number of packets recived from the Entropy Key device.ConnectionRekeysβ the number of session re-keying events.ConnectionResetsβ the number of times the Entropy Key device has been reset by the host software.ConnectionTimeβ the number of seconds the Entropy Key device has been connected to the host software.EntropyRateβ the number of bits per second of entropy from the Entropy Key.FipsFrameRateβ the number of FIPS frames generated per second by the Entropy Key.FrameByteLastβ the byte offset of the last valid frame.FramesOkβ the number of valid frames recived from the Entropy Key.FramingErrorsβ the number of framing errors.KeyDbsdShannonPerByteLβ the estimated number of shannons per byte from the left generator after debiasing.KeyDbsdShannonPerByteRβ the estimated number of shannons per byte from the right generator after debiasing.KeyEnglishBadnessβ human-readable explanation of any 'badness' state on the device.KeyRawBadnessβ the raw badness token (if any) from the device.KeyRawShannonPerByteLβ the estimated number of shannons per byte from the left generator before debiasing.KeyRawShannonPerByteRβ the estimated number of shannons per byte from the right generator before debiasing.KeyRawShannonPerByteXβ the estimated number of shannons per byte from the exclusive orred output of the generators before debiasing.KeyShortBadnessβ machine-readable reason for any 'badness' state on the device.KeyTemperatureCβ the internal temperature in Celsius of the Entropy Key.KeyTemperatureFβ the internal temperature in Fahrenheit of the Entropy Key.KeyTemperatureKβ the internal temperature in Kelvin of the Entropy Key. (three whole temperature scales, she contains multitudes π)KeyVoltageβ the internal supply voltage of the Entropy Key.PacketErrorsβ the number of packet level errors.PacketOKβ the number of correct packets.ReadRateβ the number of bits per second being read from the Entropy Key.TotalEntropyβ the total number of bytes read from the Entropy Key.WriteRateβ the number of bits per second being written to the Entropy Key.
β¨ SEE ALSO β¨
ekeyd(8)β the daemon herself, go say hi π«Ά
β¨ AUTHOR β¨
Copyright Β© 2009 Simtec Electronics. All rights reserved. π
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
bestie this is the legal bit and it's not a joke β that whole warranty disclaimer is doing real work. read it. respect it. π
and that's the page!! this lil manual is dated the 19th July 2009 and it lives at the bottom of every ekeydctl(8) page as the source/version footer. 2009 said "let there be entropy" and honestly? it ate. πβ¨π
π¦ where this page comes from
- debian bookworm: ekeyd 1.1.5-6.2
- debian trixie: ekeyd 1.1.5-8
- ubuntu jammy: ekeyd 1.1.5-6.2
- ubuntu noble: ekeyd 1.1.5-6.3
- ubuntu questing: ekeyd 1.1.5-8
- ubuntu resolute: ekeyd 1.1.5-8build1
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms