# phpman > info > keyutils

[KEYUTILS(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/KEYUTILS/7/markdown)                  Kernel key management                 [KEYUTILS(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/KEYUTILS/7/markdown)

NAME
       keyutils - in-kernel key management utilities

DESCRIPTION
       The  keyutils package is a library and a set of utilities for accessing
       the kernel keyrings facility.

       A header file is supplied to provide the definitions  and  declarations
       required to access the library:

              #include <keyutils.h>

       To link with the library, the following:

              -lkeyutils

       should be specified to the linker.

       Three system calls are provided:

       [add_key(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/addkey/2/markdown)
              Supply a new key to the kernel.

       [request_key(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/requestkey/2/markdown)
              Find  an existing key for use, or, optionally, create one if one
              does not exist.

       [keyctl(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/2/markdown)
              Control a key in various ways.  The library provides  a  variety
              of  wrappers  around  this  system call and those should be used
              rather than calling it directly.

       See the [add_key(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/addkey/2/markdown), [request_key(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/requestkey/2/markdown), and [keyctl(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/2/markdown) manual pages for more
       information.

       The keyctl() wrappers are listed on the [keyctl(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/3/markdown) manual page.

UTILITIES
       A  program is provided to interact with the kernel facility by a number
       of subcommands, e.g.:

              keyctl add user foo bar @s

       See the [keyctl(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/1/markdown) manual page for information on that.

       The kernel has the ability to upcall  to  userspace  to  fabricate  new
       keys.   This can be triggered by request_key(), but userspace is better
       off using add_key() instead if it possibly can.

       The upcalling mechanism is usually routed via the  [request-key(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/request-key/8/markdown)  pro-
       gram.  What this does with any particular key is configurable in:

              /etc/request-key.conf
              /etc/request-key.d/

       See  the  [request-key.conf(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/request-key.conf/5/markdown)  and  the [request-key(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/request-key/8/markdown) manual pages for
       more information.

SEE ALSO
       [keyctl(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/1/markdown), [keyctl(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyctl/3/markdown), [keyrings(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/keyrings/7/markdown), [persistent-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/persistent-keyring/7/markdown),
       [process-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/process-keyring/7/markdown), [session-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/session-keyring/7/markdown), [thread-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/thread-keyring/7/markdown),
       [user-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/user-keyring/7/markdown), [user-session-keyring(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/user-session-keyring/7/markdown), [pam_keyinit(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pamkeyinit/8/markdown)

Linux                             21 Feb 2014                      [KEYUTILS(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/KEYUTILS/7/markdown)