openvpn3-service-client(8)

✨ openvpn3-service-client ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the openvpn3-service-client(8) page — this is the OpenVPN 3 Linux one, and it's literally the little backend workhorse that makes your VPN tunnel happen 💖

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

openvpn3-service-client — the OpenVPN 3 Linux VPN Client backend service. that's it, that's the vibe 🦋

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

openvpn3-service-client [OPTIONS]
openvpn3-service-client -h | --help

---

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so picture this: the openvpn3-service-client process is a backend service for OpenVPN 3 Linux, and it is responsible for exactly one single VPN session. one session, one client, no sharing, main character energy only 👑

you do NOT start this yourself. it gets started automatically by openvpn3-service-backendstart, and that whole thing kicks off when openvpn3-service-sessionmgr is asked to spin up a new VPN session. so it's giving very much "backend pipeline, you're just here to witness it" ✨

and yes: it runs one openvpn3-service-client per active VPN session. one-to-one, periodt 💅

this service must be started by the openvpn3-service-backendstart process, because it gathers more info from the session manager before it starts the client process with the given arguments. it must run as the _openvpn user and it requires no privileges — unbothered, moisturized, unprivileged 💚 all the privileged stuff — creating and configuring the virtual network adapter, IP addresses, routes and DNS — is handled by the openvpn3-service-netcfg service. she handles all of that, not us 🫶

⚠️ beware bestie: if you run this with another user account than _openvpn, you also have to update the D-Bus policy as well. no skipping that step, it's part of the outfit 😭

---

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -h, --help — prints usage and help details straight to the terminal, so you're not out here guessing 🎀
• --version — prints the version of the program and exits. (yes, the original says "exists", and honestly? she exists and she exits, both are true 💀)
• --log-level LEVEL — sets the default log verbosity for log events generated by this service. the default is 3, and the valid values are 0 to 6. higher log levels = more verbose logs, and log level 6 will contain all debug log events 🔥

ngl this setting gets overridden if the configuration file used contains the --verb option (peep the openvpn(8) man page for the deets) or if the log-level configuration profile override has been set (see openvpn3-config-manage(1)). so like, she's the default, but not always the final word 💅

• --log-file LOG_DESTINATION — by default, logging goes via the openvpn3-service-log service. by providing this argument, logging will also be sent to LOG_DESTINATION, which can be either a filename or stdout: — and that second one sends log data to the console 🖥️✨
• --colour — adds colours to log events when logging to a file or terminal. log events get coloured based on the log level of the event. aesthetic AND functional, we love to see it 🌈💖
• --disable-protect-socket — okay so the VPN client can protect the socket being used for the UDP/TCP connection to the VPN server from being routed over the VPN itself. this makes the routing table simpler and means you don't need any specific routing entries if the default gateway is changed. unfortunately, this does not work on all systems, and to get a functional VPN tunnel, this socket protection needs to be disabled. by setting this option, it will not be possible to make use of the --set-somark feature in openvpn3-service-netcfg. so it's a trade-off, choose wisely bestie 💀

---

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• openvpn3(1)
• openvpn3-config-manage(1)
• openvpn3-service-backendstart(8)
• openvpn3-service-netcfg(8)
• openvpn(8)

---

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this was the openvpn3-service-client(8) manual from OpenVPN 3 Linux — go forth, stay unprivileged, and let openvpn3-service-netcfg handle the privileges for you 💜🎀