acmetool(8) System Manager's Manual acmetool(8)

acmetool - request certificates from ACME servers automatically

acmetool is a utility for the automated retrieval, management and renewal of certificates from ACME server such as Let's Encrypt. It emphasises automation, idempotency and the minimisation of state.

You use acmetool by configuring targets (typically using the "want") command. acmetool then requests certificates as necessary to satisfy the configured targets. New certificates are requested where existing ones are soon to expire.

acmetool stores its state in a state directory. It can be specified on invocation via the --state option; otherwise, the path in ACME_STATE_DIR is used, or, failing that, the path "/var/lib/acme" (recommended).

The --xlog options control the logging. The --service options control privilege dropping and daemonization and are applicable only to the redirector subcommand.

Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
Path to the state directory (env: ACME_STATE_DIR)
Path to the notification hooks directory (env: ACME_HOOKS_DIR)
Do not attempt interaction; useful for cron jobs. (acmetool can still obtain responses from a response file, if one was provided.)
Don't attempt to use console dialogs; fall back to stdio prompts
Read dialog responses from the given file (default: $ACME_STATE_DIR/conf/responses)
Print version information
Syslog facility to use
Log to syslog?
Syslog severity limit
Log to systemd journal?
Systemd journal severity limit
Log severity (any syslog severity name or number)
Log to filename
File logging severity limit
Log to stderr?
stderr logging severity limit
Write CPU profile to file
Address for debug server to listen on (do not specify a public address) (default: disabled)
UID to run as (default: don't drop privileges)
GID to run as (default: don't drop privileges)
Run as daemon? (doesn't fork)
Keep stderr open when daemonizing
Chroot to a directory (must set UID, GID) ("/" disables)
Write PID to file with given filename and hold a write lock
Fork? (implies -daemon)

help [<command>...]

Show help.

cull [<flags>]

Delete expired, unused certificates

Show which certificates would be deleted without deleting any

status

Show active configuration

want [<flags>] <hostname>...

Add a target with one or more hostnames

Specify --no-reconcile to skip reconcile after adding target

unwant <hostname>...

Modify targets to remove any mentions of the given hostnames

quickstart [<flags>]

Interactively ask some getting started questions (recommended)

Ask more questions in quickstart wizard

redirector [<flags>]

HTTP to HTTPS redirector with challenge response support

Path to serve challenge files from
GID to chgrp the challenge path to (optional)
Maximum duration before timing out read of the request (default: '10s')
Maximum duration before timing out write of the request (default: '20s')
HTTP status code to use when redirecting (default '308')
Bind address for redirectory (default ':80')

test-notify [<hostname>...]

Test-execute notification hooks as though given hostnames were updated

import-jwk-account <provider-url> <private-key-file>

Import a JWK account key

import-pem-account <provider-url> <private-key-file>

Import a PEM account key

import-key <private-key-file>

Import a certificate private key

import-le [<le-state-path*>]

Import a Let's Encrypt client state directory

revoke [<certificate-id-or-path>]

Revoke a certificate

account-thumbprint

Prints account thumbprints

account-url

Show account URL

reconcile [<target-filenames>...]

Reconcile ACME state, idempotently requesting and renewing certificates to satisfy configured targets.

This is the default command.

© 2015 Hugo Landau <hlandau@devever.net> MIT License

Documentation: <https://github.com/hlandau/acmetool>

Report bugs at: <https://github.com/hlandau/acmetool/issues>

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