
User Guide
**********


Table of Contents
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* Getting Certbot

  * The name of the certbot command

* Plugins

  * Apache

  * Webroot

  * Standalone

  * Manual

  * Nginx

  * Third-party plugins

* Renewal

* Command line options

* Where are my certificates?

* Configuration file

* Getting help

* Other methods of installation

  * Running with Docker

  * Operating System Packages

  * From source

  * Comparison of different methods


Getting Certbot
===============

To get specific instructions for installing Certbot on your OS, we
recommend visiting certbot.eff.org. If you're offline, you can find
some general instructions in the README / Introduction


The name of the certbot command
-------------------------------

Many platforms now have native packages that give you a "certbot" or
(for older packages) "letsencrypt" command you can run. On others, the
"certbot-auto" / "letsencrypt-auto" installer and wrapper script is a
stand-in. Throughout the documentation, whenever you see references to
"certbot" script/binary, you should substitute in the name of the
command that certbot.eff.org told you to use on your system
("certbot", "letsencrypt", or "certbot-auto").


Plugins
=======

The Certbot client supports a number of different "plugins" that can
be used to obtain and/or install certificates.  Plugins that can
obtain a cert are called "authenticators" and can be used with the
"certonly" command. Plugins that can install a cert are called
"installers".  Plugins that do both can be used with the "certbot run"
command, which is the default.

+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Plugin      | Auth | Inst | Notes                                                           |
+=============+======+======+=================================================================+
| apache      | Y    | Y    | Automates obtaining and installing a cert with Apache 2.4 on    |
|             |      |      | Debian- based distributions with "libaugeas0" 1.0+.             |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| webroot     | Y    | N    | Obtains a cert by writing to the webroot directory of an        |
|             |      |      | already running webserver.                                      |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| standalone  | Y    | N    | Uses a "standalone" webserver to obtain a cert. Requires port   |
|             |      |      | 80 or 443 to be available. This is useful on systems with no    |
|             |      |      | webserver, or when direct integration with the local webserver  |
|             |      |      | is not supported or not desired.                                |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| manual      | Y    | N    | Helps you obtain a cert by giving you instructions to perform   |
|             |      |      | domain validation yourself.                                     |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| nginx       | Y    | Y    | Very experimental and not included in certbot-auto.             |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

There are many third-party-plugins available.


Apache
------

If you're running Apache 2.4 on a Debian-based OS with version 1.0+ of
the "libaugeas0" package available, you can use the Apache plugin.
This automates both obtaining *and* installing certs on an Apache
webserver. To specify this plugin on the command line, simply include
"--apache".


Webroot
-------

If you're running a local webserver for which you have the ability to
modify the content being served, and you'd prefer not to stop the
webserver during the certificate issuance process, you can use the
webroot plugin to obtain a cert by including "certonly" and "--
webroot" on the command line. In addition, you'll need to specify "--
webroot-path" or "-w" with the top-level directory ("web root")
containing the files served by your webserver. For example, "--
webroot-path /var/www/html" or "--webroot-path /usr/share/nginx/html"
are two common webroot paths.

If you're getting a certificate for many domains at once, the plugin
needs to know where each domain's files are served from, which could
potentially be a separate directory for each domain. When requesting a
certificate for multiple domains, each domain will use the most
recently specified "--webroot-path".  So, for instance,

   certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/example/ -d www.example.com -d example.com -w /var/www/other -d other.example.net -d another.other.example.net

would obtain a single certificate for all of those names, using the
"/var/www/example" webroot directory for the first two, and
"/var/www/other" for the second two.

The webroot plugin works by creating a temporary file for each of your
requested domains in "${webroot-path}/.well-known/acme-challenge".
Then the Let's Encrypt validation server makes HTTP requests to
validate that the DNS for each requested domain resolves to the server
running certbot. An example request made to your web server would look
like:

   66.133.109.36 - - [05/Jan/2016:20:11:24 -0500] "GET /.well-known/acme-challenge/HGr8U1IeTW4kY_Z6UIyaakzOkyQgPr_7ArlLgtZE8SX HTTP/1.1" 200 87 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Let's Encrypt validation server; +https://www.letsencrypt.org)"

Note that to use the webroot plugin, your server must be configured to
serve files from hidden directories. If "/.well-known" is treated
specially by your webserver configuration, you might need to modify
the configuration to ensure that files inside "/.well-known/acme-
challenge" are served by the webserver.


Standalone
----------

To obtain a cert using a "standalone" webserver, you can use the
standalone plugin by including "certonly" and "--standalone" on the
command line. This plugin needs to bind to port 80 or 443 in order to
perform domain validation, so you may need to stop your existing
webserver. To control which port the plugin uses, include one of the
options shown below on the command line.

   * "--standalone-supported-challenges http-01" to use port 80

   * "--standalone-supported-challenges tls-sni-01" to use port 443

The standalone plugin does not rely on any other server software
running on the machine where you obtain the certificate. It must still
be possible for that machine to accept inbound connections from the
Internet on the specified port using each requested domain name.


Manual
------

If you'd like to obtain a cert running "certbot" on a machine other
than your target webserver or perform the steps for domain validation
yourself, you can use the manual plugin. While hidden from the UI, you
can use the plugin to obtain a cert by specifying "certonly" and "--
manual" on the command line. This requires you to copy and paste
commands into another terminal session, which may be on a different
computer.


Nginx
-----

In the future, if you're running Nginx you will hopefully be able to
use this plugin to automatically obtain and install your certificate.
The Nginx plugin is still experimental, however, and is not installed
with certbot-auto. If installed, you can select this plugin on the
command line by including "--nginx".


Third-party plugins
-------------------

There are also a number of third-party plugins for the client,
provided by other developers. Many are beta/experimental, but some are
already in widespread use:

+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Plugin      | Auth | Inst | Notes                                                           |
+=============+======+======+=================================================================+
| plesk       | Y    | Y    | Integration with the Plesk web hosting tool                     |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| haproxy     | Y    | Y    | Integration with the HAProxy load balancer                      |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| s3front     | Y    | Y    | Integration with Amazon CloudFront distribution of S3 buckets   |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| gandi       | Y    | Y    | Integration with Gandi's hosting products and API               |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| varnish     | Y    | N    | Obtain certs via a Varnish server                               |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| external    | Y    | N    | A plugin for convenient scripting (See also ticket 2782)        |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| icecast     | N    | Y    | Deploy certs to Icecast 2 streaming media servers               |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| pritunl     | N    | Y    | Install certs in pritunl distributed OpenVPN servers            |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| proxmox     | N    | Y    | Install certs in Proxmox Virtualization servers                 |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| postfix     | N    | Y    | STARTTLS Everywhere is becoming a Certbot Postfix/Exim plugin   |
+-------------+------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

If you're interested, you can also write your own plugin.


Renewal
=======

Note: Let's Encrypt CA issues short-lived certificates (90 days).
  Make sure you renew the certificates at least once in 3 months.

The "certbot" client now supports a "renew" action to check all
installed certificates for impending expiry and attempt to renew them.
The simplest form is simply

"certbot renew"

This will attempt to renew any previously-obtained certificates that
expire in less than 30 days. The same plugin and options that were
used at the time the certificate was originally issued will be used
for the renewal attempt, unless you specify other plugins or options.

You can also specify hooks to be run before or after a certificate is
renewed. For example, if you want to use the standalone plugin to
renew your certificates, you may want to use a command like

"certbot renew --standalone --pre-hook "service nginx stop" --post-
hook "service nginx start""

This will stop Nginx so standalone can bind to the necessary ports and
then restart Nginx after the plugin is finished. The hooks will only
be run if a certificate is due for renewal, so you can run this
command frequently without unnecessarily stopping your webserver. More
information about renewal hooks can be found by running "certbot
--help renew".

If you're sure that this command executes successfully without human
intervention, you can add the command to "crontab" (since certificates
are only renewed when they're determined to be near expiry, the
command can run on a regular basis, like every week or every day). In
that case, you are likely to want to use the "-q" or "--quiet" quiet
flag to silence all output except errors.

The "--force-renew" flag may be helpful for automating renewal; it
causes the expiration time of the certificate(s) to be ignored when
considering renewal, and attempts to renew each and every installed
certificate regardless of its age. (This form is not appropriate to
run daily because each certificate will be renewed every day, which
will quickly run into the certificate authority rate limit.)

Note that options provided to "certbot renew" will apply to *every*
certificate for which renewal is attempted; for example, "certbot
renew --rsa-key-size 4096" would try to replace every near-expiry
certificate with an equivalent certificate using a 4096-bit RSA public
key. If a certificate is successfully renewed using specified options,
those options will be saved and used for future renewals of that
certificate.

An alternative form that provides for more fine-grained control over
the renewal process (while renewing specified certificates one at a
time), is "certbot certonly" with the complete set of subject domains
of a specific certificate specified via "-d" flags. You may also want
to include the "-n" or "--noninteractive" flag to prevent blocking on
user input (which is useful when running the command from cron).

"certbot certonly -n -d example.com -d www.example.com"

(All of the domains covered by the certificate must be specified in
this case in order to renew and replace the old certificate rather
than obtaining a new one; don't forget any "www." domains! Specifying
a subset of the domains creates a new, separate certificate containing
only those domains, rather than replacing the original certificate.)
The "certonly" form attempts to renew one individual certificate.

Please note that the CA will send notification emails to the address
you provide if you do not renew certificates that are about to expire.

Certbot is working hard on improving the renewal process, and we
apologize for any inconveniences you encounter in integrating these
commands into your individual environment.


Command line options
====================

Certbot supports a lot of command line options.  Here's the full list,
from "certbot --help all":

   usage: 
     certbot [SUBCOMMAND] [options] [-d domain] [-d domain] ...

   Certbot can obtain and install HTTPS/TLS/SSL certificates.  By default,
   it will attempt to use a webserver both for obtaining and installing the
   cert. Major SUBCOMMANDS are:

     (default) run        Obtain & install a cert in your current webserver
     certonly             Obtain cert, but do not install it (aka "auth")
     install              Install a previously obtained cert in a server
     renew                Renew previously obtained certs that are near expiry
     revoke               Revoke a previously obtained certificate
     register             Perform tasks related to registering with the CA
     rollback             Rollback server configuration changes made during install
     config_changes       Show changes made to server config during installation
     plugins              Display information about installed plugins

   optional arguments:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
                           config file path (default: None)
     -v, --verbose         This flag can be used multiple times to incrementally
                           increase the verbosity of output, e.g. -vvv. (default:
                           -3)
     -t, --text            Use the text output instead of the curses UI.
                           (default: False)
     -n, --non-interactive, --noninteractive
                           Run without ever asking for user input. This may
                           require additional command line flags; the client will
                           try to explain which ones are required if it finds one
                           missing (default: False)
     --dialog              Run using dialog (default: False)
     --dry-run             Perform a test run of the client, obtaining test
                           (invalid) certs but not saving them to disk. This can
                           currently only be used with the 'certonly' and 'renew'
                           subcommands. Note: Although --dry-run tries to avoid
                           making any persistent changes on a system, it is not
                           completely side-effect free: if used with webserver
                           authenticator plugins like apache and nginx, it makes
                           and then reverts temporary config changes in order to
                           obtain test certs, and reloads webservers to deploy
                           and then roll back those changes. It also calls --pre-
                           hook and --post-hook commands if they are defined
                           because they may be necessary to accurately simulate
                           renewal. --renew-hook commands are not called.
                           (default: False)
     --register-unsafely-without-email
                           Specifying this flag enables registering an account
                           with no email address. This is strongly discouraged,
                           because in the event of key loss or account compromise
                           you will irrevocably lose access to your account. You
                           will also be unable to receive notice about impending
                           expiration or revocation of your certificates. Updates
                           to the Subscriber Agreement will still affect you, and
                           will be effective 14 days after posting an update to
                           the web site. (default: False)
     --update-registration
                           With the register verb, indicates that details
                           associated with an existing registration, such as the
                           e-mail address, should be updated, rather than
                           registering a new account. (default: False)
     -m EMAIL, --email EMAIL
                           Email used for registration and recovery contact.
                           (default: None)
     -d DOMAIN, --domains DOMAIN, --domain DOMAIN
                           Domain names to apply. For multiple domains you can
                           use multiple -d flags or enter a comma separated list
                           of domains as a parameter. (default: [])
     --user-agent USER_AGENT
                           Set a custom user agent string for the client. User
                           agent strings allow the CA to collect high level
                           statistics about success rates by OS and plugin. If
                           you wish to hide your server OS version from the Let's
                           Encrypt server, set this to "". (default: None)

   automation:
     Arguments for automating execution & other tweaks

     --keep-until-expiring, --keep, --reinstall
                           If the requested cert matches an existing cert, always
                           keep the existing one until it is due for renewal (for
                           the 'run' subcommand this means reinstall the existing
                           cert) (default: False)
     --expand              If an existing cert covers some subset of the
                           requested names, always expand and replace it with the
                           additional names. (default: False)
     --version             show program's version number and exit
     --force-renewal, --renew-by-default
                           If a certificate already exists for the requested
                           domains, renew it now, regardless of whether it is
                           near expiry. (Often --keep-until-expiring is more
                           appropriate). Also implies --expand. (default: False)
     --allow-subset-of-names
                           When performing domain validation, do not consider it
                           a failure if authorizations can not be obtained for a
                           strict subset of the requested domains. This may be
                           useful for allowing renewals for multiple domains to
                           succeed even if some domains no longer point at this
                           system. This option cannot be used with --csr.
                           (default: False)
     --agree-tos           Agree to the ACME Subscriber Agreement (default:
                           False)
     --account ACCOUNT_ID  Account ID to use (default: None)
     --duplicate           Allow making a certificate lineage that duplicates an
                           existing one (both can be renewed in parallel)
                           (default: False)
     --os-packages-only    (letsencrypt-auto only) install OS package
                           dependencies and then stop (default: False)
     --no-self-upgrade     (letsencrypt-auto only) prevent the letsencrypt-auto
                           script from upgrading itself to newer released
                           versions (default: False)
     -q, --quiet           Silence all output except errors. Useful for
                           automation via cron. Implies --non-interactive.
                           (default: False)

   testing:
     The following flags are meant for testing purposes only! Do NOT change
     them, unless you really know what you're doing!

     --debug               Show tracebacks in case of errors, and allow
                           letsencrypt-auto execution on experimental platforms
                           (default: False)
     --no-verify-ssl       Disable SSL certificate verification. (default: False)
     --tls-sni-01-port TLS_SNI_01_PORT
                           Port number to perform tls-sni-01 challenge. Boulder
                           in testing mode defaults to 5001. (default: 443)
     --http-01-port HTTP01_PORT
                           Port used in the SimpleHttp challenge. (default: 80)
     --break-my-certs      Be willing to replace or renew valid certs with
                           invalid (testing/staging) certs (default: False)
     --test-cert, --staging
                           Use the staging server to obtain test (invalid) certs;
                           equivalent to --server https://acme-
                           staging.api.letsencrypt.org/directory (default: False)

   security:
     Security parameters & server settings

     --rsa-key-size N      Size of the RSA key. (default: 2048)
     --must-staple         Adds the OCSP Must Staple extension to the
                           certificate. Autoconfigures OCSP Stapling for
                           supported setups (Apache version >= 2.3.3 ). (default:
                           False)
     --redirect            Automatically redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS for
                           the newly authenticated vhost. (default: None)
     --no-redirect         Do not automatically redirect all HTTP traffic to
                           HTTPS for the newly authenticated vhost. (default:
                           None)
     --hsts                Add the Strict-Transport-Security header to every HTTP
                           response. Forcing browser to use always use SSL for
                           the domain. Defends against SSL Stripping. (default:
                           False)
     --no-hsts             Do not automatically add the Strict-Transport-Security
                           header to every HTTP response. (default: False)
     --uir                 Add the "Content-Security-Policy: upgrade-insecure-
                           requests" header to every HTTP response. Forcing the
                           browser to use https:// for every http:// resource.
                           (default: None)
     --no-uir              Do not automatically set the "Content-Security-Policy:
                           upgrade-insecure-requests" header to every HTTP
                           response. (default: None)
     --staple-ocsp         Enables OCSP Stapling. A valid OCSP response is
                           stapled to the certificate that the server offers
                           during TLS. (default: None)
     --no-staple-ocsp      Do not automatically enable OCSP Stapling. (default:
                           None)
     --strict-permissions  Require that all configuration files are owned by the
                           current user; only needed if your config is somewhere
                           unsafe like /tmp/ (default: False)

   renew:
     The 'renew' subcommand will attempt to renew all certificates (or more
     precisely, certificate lineages) you have previously obtained if they are
     close to expiry, and print a summary of the results. By default, 'renew'
     will reuse the options used to create obtain or most recently successfully
     renew each certificate lineage. You can try it with `--dry-run` first. For
     more fine-grained control, you can renew individual lineages with the
     `certonly` subcommand. Hooks are available to run commands before and
     after renewal; see https://certbot.eff.org/docs/using.html#renewal for
     more information on these.

     --pre-hook PRE_HOOK   Command to be run in a shell before obtaining any
                           certificates. Intended primarily for renewal, where it
                           can be used to temporarily shut down a webserver that
                           might conflict with the standalone plugin. This will
                           only be called if a certificate is actually to be
                           obtained/renewed. (default: None)
     --post-hook POST_HOOK
                           Command to be run in a shell after attempting to
                           obtain/renew certificates. Can be used to deploy
                           renewed certificates, or to restart any servers that
                           were stopped by --pre-hook. This is only run if an
                           attempt was made to obtain/renew a certificate.
                           (default: None)
     --renew-hook RENEW_HOOK
                           Command to be run in a shell once for each
                           successfully renewed certificate.For this command, the
                           shell variable $RENEWED_LINEAGE will point to
                           theconfig live subdirectory containing the new certs
                           and keys; the shell variable $RENEWED_DOMAINS will
                           contain a space-delimited list of renewed cert domains
                           (default: None)
     --disable-hook-validation
                           Ordinarily the commands specified for --pre-hook
                           /--post-hook/--renew-hook will be checked for
                           validity, to see if the programs being run are in the
                           $PATH, so that mistakes can be caught early, even when
                           the hooks aren't being run just yet. The validation is
                           rather simplistic and fails if you use more advanced
                           shell constructs, so you can use this switch to
                           disable it. (default: True)

   certonly:
     Options for modifying how a cert is obtained

     --csr CSR             Path to a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) in DER
                           format; note that the .csr file *must* contain a
                           Subject Alternative Name field for each domain you
                           want certified. Currently --csr only works with the
                           'certonly' subcommand' (default: None)

   install:
     Options for modifying how a cert is deployed

   revoke:
     Options for revocation of certs

   rollback:
     Options for reverting config changes

     --checkpoints N       Revert configuration N number of checkpoints.
                           (default: 1)

   plugins:
     Plugin options

     --init                Initialize plugins. (default: False)
     --prepare             Initialize and prepare plugins. (default: False)
     --authenticators      Limit to authenticator plugins only. (default: None)
     --installers          Limit to installer plugins only. (default: None)

   config_changes:
     Options for showing a history of config changes

     --num NUM             How many past revisions you want to be displayed
                           (default: None)

   paths:
     Arguments changing execution paths & servers

     --cert-path CERT_PATH
                           Path to where cert is saved (with auth --csr),
                           installed from or revoked. (default: None)
     --key-path KEY_PATH   Path to private key for cert installation or
                           revocation (if account key is missing) (default: None)
     --fullchain-path FULLCHAIN_PATH
                           Accompanying path to a full certificate chain (cert
                           plus chain). (default: None)
     --chain-path CHAIN_PATH
                           Accompanying path to a certificate chain. (default:
                           None)
     --config-dir CONFIG_DIR
                           Configuration directory. (default: /etc/letsencrypt)
     --work-dir WORK_DIR   Working directory. (default: /var/lib/letsencrypt)
     --logs-dir LOGS_DIR   Logs directory. (default: /var/log/letsencrypt)
     --server SERVER       ACME Directory Resource URI. (default:
                           https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory)

   plugins:
     Certbot client supports an extensible plugins architecture. See 'certbot
     plugins' for a list of all installed plugins and their names. You can
     force a particular plugin by setting options provided below. Running
     --help <plugin_name> will list flags specific to that plugin.

     -a AUTHENTICATOR, --authenticator AUTHENTICATOR
                           Authenticator plugin name. (default: None)
     -i INSTALLER, --installer INSTALLER
                           Installer plugin name (also used to find domains).
                           (default: None)
     --configurator CONFIGURATOR
                           Name of the plugin that is both an authenticator and
                           an installer. Should not be used together with
                           --authenticator or --installer. (default: None)
     --apache              Obtain and install certs using Apache (default: False)
     --nginx               Obtain and install certs using Nginx (default: False)
     --standalone          Obtain certs using a "standalone" webserver. (default:
                           False)
     --manual              Provide laborious manual instructions for obtaining a
                           cert (default: False)
     --webroot             Obtain certs by placing files in a webroot directory.
                           (default: False)

   standalone:
     Automatically use a temporary webserver

     --standalone-supported-challenges STANDALONE_SUPPORTED_CHALLENGES
                           Supported challenges. Preferred in the order they are
                           listed. (default: tls-sni-01,http-01)

   manual:
     Manually configure an HTTP server

     --manual-test-mode    Test mode. Executes the manual command in subprocess.
                           (default: False)
     --manual-public-ip-logging-ok
                           Automatically allows public IP logging. (default:
                           False)

   nginx:
     Nginx Web Server - currently doesn't work

     --nginx-server-root NGINX_SERVER_ROOT
                           Nginx server root directory. (default: /etc/nginx)
     --nginx-ctl NGINX_CTL
                           Path to the 'nginx' binary, used for 'configtest' and
                           retrieving nginx version number. (default: nginx)

   webroot:
     Place files in webroot directory

     --webroot-path WEBROOT_PATH, -w WEBROOT_PATH
                           public_html / webroot path. This can be specified
                           multiple times to handle different domains; each
                           domain will have the webroot path that preceded it.
                           For instance: `-w /var/www/example -d example.com -d
                           www.example.com -w /var/www/thing -d thing.net -d
                           m.thing.net` (default: [])
     --webroot-map WEBROOT_MAP
                           JSON dictionary mapping domains to webroot paths; this
                           implies -d for each entry. You may need to escape this
                           from your shell. E.g.: --webroot-map
                           '{"eg1.is,m.eg1.is":"/www/eg1/", "eg2.is":"/www/eg2"}'
                           This option is merged with, but takes precedence over,
                           -w / -d entries. At present, if you put webroot-map in
                           a config file, it needs to be on a single line, like:
                           webroot-map = {"example.com":"/var/www"}. (default:
                           {})

   apache:
     Apache Web Server - Alpha

     --apache-enmod APACHE_ENMOD
                           Path to the Apache 'a2enmod' binary. (default:
                           a2enmod)
     --apache-dismod APACHE_DISMOD
                           Path to the Apache 'a2dismod' binary. (default:
                           a2dismod)
     --apache-le-vhost-ext APACHE_LE_VHOST_EXT
                           SSL vhost configuration extension. (default: -le-
                           ssl.conf)
     --apache-server-root APACHE_SERVER_ROOT
                           Apache server root directory. (default: /etc/apache2)
     --apache-vhost-root APACHE_VHOST_ROOT
                           Apache server VirtualHost configuration root (default:
                           /etc/apache2/sites-available)
     --apache-challenge-location APACHE_CHALLENGE_LOCATION
                           Directory path for challenge configuration. (default:
                           /etc/apache2)
     --apache-handle-modules APACHE_HANDLE_MODULES
                           Let installer handle enabling required modules for
                           you.(Only Ubuntu/Debian currently) (default: True)
     --apache-handle-sites APACHE_HANDLE_SITES
                           Let installer handle enabling sites for you.(Only
                           Ubuntu/Debian currently) (default: True)

   null:
     Null Installer


Where are my certificates?
==========================

All generated keys and issued certificates can be found in
"/etc/letsencrypt/live/$domain". Rather than copying, please point
your (web) server configuration directly to those files (or create
symlinks). During the renewal, "/etc/letsencrypt/live" is updated with
the latest necessary files.

Note: "/etc/letsencrypt/archive" and "/etc/letsencrypt/keys" contain
  all previous keys and certificates, while "/etc/letsencrypt/live"
  symlinks to the latest versions.

The following files are available:

"privkey.pem"
   Private key for the certificate.

   Warning: This **must be kept secret at all times**! Never share
     it with anyone, including Certbot developers. You cannot put it
     into a safe, however - your server still needs to access this
     file in order for SSL/TLS to work.

   This is what Apache needs for SSLCertificateKeyFile, and nginx for
   ssl_certificate_key.

"cert.pem"
   Server certificate only.

   This is what Apache < 2.4.8 needs for SSLCertificateFile.

"chain.pem"
   All certificates that need to be served by the browser
   **excluding** server certificate, i.e. root and intermediate
   certificates only.

   This is what Apache < 2.4.8 needs for SSLCertificateChainFile, and
   what nginx >= 1.3.7 needs for ssl_trusted_certificate.

"fullchain.pem"
   All certificates, **including** server certificate. This is
   concatenation of "cert.pem" and "chain.pem".

   This is what Apache >= 2.4.8 needs for SSLCertificateFile, and what
   nginx needs for ssl_certificate.

For both chain files, all certificates are ordered from root (primary
certificate) towards leaf.

Please note, that **you must use** either "chain.pem" or
"fullchain.pem". In case of webservers, using only "cert.pem", will
cause nasty errors served through the browsers!

Note: All files are PEM-encoded (as the filename suffix suggests).
  If you need other format, such as DER or PFX, then you could convert
  using "openssl". You can automate that with "--renew-hook" if you're
  using automatic renewal.


Configuration file
==================

It is possible to specify configuration file with "certbot-auto
--config cli.ini" (or shorter "-c cli.ini"). An example configuration
file is shown below:

   # This is an example of the kind of things you can do in a configuration file.
   # All flags used by the client can be configured here. Run Certbot with
   # "--help" to learn more about the available options.

   # Use a 4096 bit RSA key instead of 2048
   rsa-key-size = 4096

   # The staging/testing server
   server = https://acme-staging.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
   # The productive server.
   # server = https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

   # Uncomment and update to register with the specified e-mail address
   # email = foo@example.com

   # Uncomment and update to generate certificates for the specified
   # domains.
   # domains = example.com, www.example.com

   # Uncomment to use a text interface instead of ncurses
   # text = True

   # Uncomment
   # agree-eula = True
   # agree-tos = True
   # renew-by-default = True

   # Uncomment to use the standalone authenticator on port 443
   # If you want to ue port 80, you must use standalone-supported-challenges = http-01
   # authenticator = standalone
   # standalone-supported-challenges = tls-sni-01

   # Uncomment to use the webroot authenticator. Replace webroot-path with the
   # path to the public_html / webroot folder being served by your web server.
   # authenticator = webroot
   # webroot-path = /srv/www/htdocs

By default, the following locations are searched:

* "/etc/letsencrypt/cli.ini"

* "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/letsencrypt/cli.ini" (or
  "~/.config/letsencrypt/cli.ini" if "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" is not set).


Getting help
============

If you're having problems you can chat with us on IRC (#certbot @
OFTC) or at IRC (#letsencrypt @ freenode) or get support on the Let's
Encrypt forums.

If you find a bug in the software, please do report it in our issue
tracker. Remember to give us as much information as possible:

* copy and paste exact command line used and the output (though mind
  that the latter might include some personally identifiable
  information, including your email and domains)

* copy and paste logs from "/var/log/letsencrypt" (though mind they
  also might contain personally identifiable information)

* copy and paste "certbot --version" output

* your operating system, including specific version

* specify which installation method you've chosen


Other methods of installation
=============================


Running with Docker
-------------------

Docker is an amazingly simple and quick way to obtain a certificate.
However, this mode of operation is unable to install certificates or
configure your webserver, because our installer plugins cannot reach
it from inside the Docker container.

You should definitely read the Where are my certificates? section, in
order to know how to manage the certs manually.
https://github.com/certbot/certbot/wiki/Ciphersuite-guidance provides
some information about recommended ciphersuites. If none of these make
much sense to you, you should definitely use the certbot-auto method,
which enables you to use installer plugins that cover both of those
hard topics.

If you're still not convinced and have decided to use this method,
from the server that the domain you're requesting a cert for resolves
to, install Docker, then issue the following command:

   sudo docker run -it --rm -p 443:443 -p 80:80 --name certbot \
               -v "/etc/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt" \
               -v "/var/lib/letsencrypt:/var/lib/letsencrypt" \
               quay.io/letsencrypt/letsencrypt:latest auth

and follow the instructions (note that "auth" command is explicitly
used - no installer plugins involved). Your new cert will be available
in "/etc/letsencrypt/live" on the host.


Operating System Packages
-------------------------

**FreeBSD**

   * Port: "cd /usr/ports/security/py-letsencrypt && make install
     clean"

   * Package: "pkg install py27-letsencrypt"

**OpenBSD**

   * Port: "cd /usr/ports/security/letsencrypt/client && make
     install clean"

   * Package: "pkg_add letsencrypt"

**Arch Linux**

   sudo pacman -S certbot

**Debian**

If you run Debian Stretch or Debian Sid, you can install certbot
packages.

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install certbot python-certbot-apache

If you don't want to use the Apache plugin, you can omit the "python-
certbot-apache" package.

Packages exist for Debian Jessie via backports. First you'll have to
follow the instructions at http://backports.debian.org/Instructions/
to enable the Jessie backports repo, if you have not already done so.
Then run:

   sudo apt-get install letsencrypt python-letsencrypt-apache -t jessie-backports

**Fedora**

   sudo dnf install letsencrypt

**Gentoo**

The official Certbot client is available in Gentoo Portage. If you
want to use the Apache plugin, it has to be installed separately:

   emerge -av app-crypt/letsencrypt
   emerge -av app-crypt/letsencrypt-apache

Currently, only the Apache plugin is included in Portage. However, if
you Warning! You can use Layman to add the mrueg overlay which does
include a package for the Certbot Nginx plugin, however, this plugin
is known to be buggy and should only be used with caution after
creating a backup up your Nginx configuration. We strongly recommend
you use the app-crypt/letsencrypt package instead until the Nginx
plugin is ready.

   emerge -av app-portage/layman
   layman -S
   layman -a mrueg
   emerge -av app-crypt/letsencrypt-nginx

When using the Apache plugin, you will run into a "cannot find a cert
or key directive" error if you're sporting the default Gentoo
"httpd.conf". You can fix this by commenting out two lines in
"/etc/apache2/httpd.conf" as follows:

Change

   <IfDefine SSL>
   LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
   </IfDefine>

to

   #<IfDefine SSL>
   LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
   #</IfDefine>

For the time being, this is the only way for the Apache plugin to
recognise the appropriate directives when installing the certificate.
Note: this change is not required for the other plugins.

**Other Operating Systems**

OS packaging is an ongoing effort. If you'd like to package Certbot
for your distribution of choice please have a look at the *Packaging
Guide*.


From source
-----------

Installation from source is only supported for developers and the
whole process is described in the *Developer Guide*.

Warning: Please do **not** use "python setup.py install" or "python
  pip install .". Please do **not** attempt the installation commands
  as superuser/root and/or without virtual environment, e.g. "sudo
  python setup.py install", "sudo pip install", "sudo ./venv/bin/...".
  These modes of operation might corrupt your operating system and are
  **not supported** by the Certbot team!


Comparison of different methods
-------------------------------

Unless you have a very specific requirements, we kindly suggest that
you use the certbot-auto method. It's the fastest, the most thoroughly
tested and the most reliable way of getting our software and the free
TLS/SSL certificates!

Beyond the methods discussed here, other methods may be possible, such
as installing Certbot directly with pip from PyPI or downloading a ZIP
archive from GitHub may be technically possible but are not presently
recommended or supported.

-[ Footnotes ]-

[1] By using this virtualized Python environment (virtualenv) we
    don't pollute the main OS space with packages from PyPI!
