GVPECTRL(8)

🎀 GVPECTRL — the GNU Virtual Private Ethernet Control Program 🎀

okay bestie, so this is gvpectrl, the control program for gvpe, the virtual private ethernet daemon. it's giving backstage-pass energy: gvpe does the networking, gvpectrl handles the keys and the config gossip. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

gvpectrl [-ckgs] [--config=DIR] [--generate-keys] [--help]
[--kill[=SIGNAL]] [--show-config] [--version]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

This is the control program for gvpe, the virtual private ethernet daemon. that's it, that's the whole vibe. it's the little helper that makes the big daemon behave. 🦋

🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• -c, --config=DIR — read configuration options from DIR. that's the folder where your config lives, bestie.
• -g, --generate-key=path — generates a single RSA key-pair. the public key gets stored in path, and the private key gets stored in path.privkey. heads up tho: neither file must be non-empty for this to succeed (yes really, it needs empty files).

so the public key file path normally gets copied to pubkey/nodename in the config directory on all nodes, while the private key path.privkey should get copied to the file hostkey on the node the key is actually for.

💡 it's recommended to generate the keypair on the node where it will be used, so that the private key file never has to travel over the network. protect that private key, it's your main character and it does NOT need to be perceived by strangers. 🔐

• -G, --generate-keys — generate public/private RSA key-pairs for all nodes not having a key and exit. lowkey a mass key-generation moment.

⚠️ note that in normal configurations this will fail, because there can only be one private key per host. to make this configuration work you need to specify separate keyfiles for hostkeys in your config file, like:

private-key = hostkeys/%s

such a configuration makes it easier to distribute a configuration centrally, but it requires private keys to be transported securely over the network. no cap, be careful with that one.

• -q, --quiet — suppresses messages the author finds nonessential for scripting purposes. aka: hush mode for when you're piping things and don't want the yapping. 🤫
• --help — display a short list of options. the classic. the icon. 👑
• --kill[=SIGNAL] — attempt to kill a running gvpectrl (optionally with the specified SIGNAL instead of SIGTERM) and exit. dramatic exits only. 💀
• --show-config — show a summary of the configuration, and how gvpe interprets it. this one can also be very useful when designing firewall scripts, so fr fr keep it in your back pocket. 🔥
• --version — output version information and exit. slay.

🙈 BUGS 🙈

if you find any bugs, report them to gvpe@schmorp.de. don't be shy, they want to know. 🐛

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

gvpe(5), gvpe.conf(5), gvpe(8).

GVPE comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. this is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details. 🫶

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Marc Lehmann <gvpe@schmorp.de>.

okay that's the whole page, bestie — this is version 2.25, dated 2016-11-02, and yes, that's GVPECTRL(8) in the GNU Virtual Private Ethernet manual. now go generate those keys and stay iconic. 💖✨