Distribution Roadmap: What's Where in Linux FreeS/WAN

This file is a guide to the locations of files within the FreeS/WAN distribution. Everything described here should be on your system once you download, gunzip, and untar the distribution.

This distribution contains two major subsystems

KLIPS

the kernel code

Pluto

the user-level key-management daemon

plus assorted odds and ends.

Top directory

The top directory has essential information in text files:

README

introduction to the software

INSTALL

short experts-only installation procedures. More detalied procedures are in installation and configuration HTML documents.

BUGS

major known bugs in the current release.

CHANGES

changes from previous releases

CREDITS

acknowledgement of contributors

COPYING

licensing and distribution information

Documentation

The doc directory contains the bulk of the documentation, most of it in HTML format. See the index file for details.

KLIPS: kernel IP security

KLIPS is Kerne L IP Security. It lives in the klips directory, of course.

klips/doc

documentation

klips/patches

patches for existing kernel files

klips/test

test stuff

klips/utils

low-level user utilities

klips/net/ipsec

actual klips kernel files

klips/src

symbolic link to klips/net/ipsec

The "make insert" step of installation installs the patches and makes a symbolic link from the kernel tree to klips/net/ipsec. The odd name of klips/net/ipsec is dictated by some annoying limitations of the scripts which build the Linux kernel. The symbolic-link business is a bit messy, but all the alternatives are worse.

klips/utils

Utility programs:

eroute

manipulate IPsec extended routing tables

klipsdebug

set Klips (kernel IPsec support) debug features and level

spi

manage IPsec Security Associations

spigrp

group/ungroup IPsec Security Associations

tncfg

associate IPsec virtual interface with real interface

These are all normally invoked by ipsec(8) with commands such as

        ipsec tncfg arguments

There are section 8 man pages for all of these; the names have "ipsec_" as a prefix, so your man command should be something like:

        man 8 ipsec_tncfg

Pluto key and connection management daemon

Pluto is our key management and negotiation daemon. It lives in the pluto directory, along with its low-level user utility, whack.

There are no subdirectories. Documentation is a man page, pluto.8. This covers whack as well.

Utils

The utils directory contains a growing collection of higher-level user utilities, the commands that administer and control the software. Most of the things that you will actually have to run yourself are in there.

ipsec

invoke IPsec utilities

ipsec(8) is normally the only program installed in a standard directory, /usr/local/sbin. It is used to invoke the others, both those listed below and the ones in klips/utils mentioned above.

auto

control automatically-keyed IPsec connections

manual

take manually-keyed IPsec connections up and down

barf

generate copious debugging output

look

generate moderate amounts of debugging output

There are .8 manual pages for these. look is covered in barf.8. The man pages have an "ipsec_" prefix so your man command should be something like:

        man 8 ipsec_auto

Examples are in various files with names utils/*.eg

Libraries

FreeS/WAN Library

The lib directory is the FreeS/WAN library, also steadily growing, used by both user-level and kernel code.
It includes section 3 man pages for the library routines.

Imported Libraries

LibDES

Note that this library has its own license, different from the GPL used for other code in FreeS/WAN.

The library includes its own documentation.

GMP

Older versions (up to 1.7) of FreeS/WAN included a copy of this library in the FreeS/WAN distribution.

Since 1.8, we have begun to rely on the system copy of GMP.