KPROPLOG(8)

💖 KPROPLOG(8) — the kproplog manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about kproplog — aka the little command that shows you the contents of the Kerberos principal update log. yes that's the whole vibe. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

kproplog [-h] [-e num] [-v]
kproplog [-R]

that's it, that's the shape of it. two whole forms. slay. 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the kproplog command displays the contents of the KDC database update log to standard output. it's giving "let me see what's been happening in here". it's literally there so you can keep track of incremental updates to the principal database. 👑

the update log file contains the update log that's maintained by the kadmind process on the primary KDC server and by the kpropd process on the replica KDC servers. when updates happen, they get logged into this file. and then? any KDC replica that's configured for incremental updates will go ask the primary KDC for the current data and update its own log file with whatever updates come back. it's a whole group chat of updates fr fr. 🦋

kproplog requires read access to the update log file — no read access, no vibes, no output. and heads up: it will display update entries only for the KDC it runs on. it's not nosy about other servers. main character energy only. ✨

if you pass no options at all, kproplog displays a summary of the update log. and if you run it on the primary, it also displays all of the update entries. but if you run it on a replica KDC server, it displays only a summary of the updates — which includes the serial number of the last update received and the associated time stamp of the last update. so like, a recap, not the whole novel. 📖

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -R — Reset the update log. this forces full resynchronization. if you use it on a replica, then that replica will request a full resync. if you use it on the primary, then all replicas will request full resyncs. so like… know what you're doing, okay bestie? 😭
• -h — Display a summary of the update log. this info includes the database version number, the state of the database, the number of updates in the log, the time stamp of the first and last update, and the version number of the first and last update entry. it's the ✨tl;dr✨ of your log. 🍓
• -e num — Display the last num update entries in the log. this is useful when debugging synchronization between KDC servers. like, when the replicas are being shady and you need receipts. 🔍
• -v — Display individual attributes per update. an example of the output generated for one entry:

Update Entry
   Update serial # : 4
   Update operation : Add
   Update principal : test@EXAMPLE.COM
   Update size : 424
   Update committed : True
   Update time stamp : Fri Feb 20 23:37:42 2004
   Attributes changed : 6
         Principal
         Key data
         Password last changed
         Modifying principal
         Modification time
         TL data

look at all those attributes. it's giving detail. it's giving receipts. we love to see it. 💜

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

see kerberos for a description of Kerberos environment variables. that's where the env lore lives, bestie. 🧚

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• kpropd
• kerberos

go read those too, i'm obsessed with them actually. 💖

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

MIT

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

1985-2026, MIT

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okay and that's the whole page!! this was MIT Kerberos, version 1.22.2 — thanks for reading my little kproplog TED talk, you ate that. go forth and read your update logs responsibly. periodt. 🎀✨💅