man > keyutils(7)

KEYUTILS(7)                             Kernel key management                            KEYUTILS(7)

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)
              Supply a new key to the kernel.

       request_key(2)
              Find an existing key for use, or, optionally, create one if one does not exist.

       keyctl(2)
              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), request_key(2), and keyctl(2) manual pages for more information.

       The keyctl() wrappers are listed on the keyctl(3) 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) manual page for information on that.

       The  kernel  has the ability to upcall to userspace to fabricate new keys.  This can be trig‐
       gered 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) program.  What this does
       with any particular key is configurable in:

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

       See the request-key.conf(5) and the request-key(8) manual pages for more information.

SEE ALSO
       keyctl(1), keyctl(3), keyrings(7), persistent-keyring(7), process-keyring(7),
       session-keyring(7), thread-keyring(7), user-keyring(7), user-session-keyring(7),
       pam_keyinit(8)

Linux                                        21 Feb 2014                                 KEYUTILS(7)