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 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)
       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)