---
name: "cf-key"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "cfengine3"
version: "3.24.1-2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/cf-key"
---

# cf-key(8)

make private/public key-pairs for CFEngine authentication

## NAME

cf-key - make private/public key-pairs for CFEngine authentication

## SYNOPSIS

**cf-key** \[*OPTION*\]...

## DESCRIPTION

The CFEngine key generator makes key pairs for remote authentication.

## OPTIONS

- \--help, -h

  Print the help message

- \--inform, -I

  Print basic information about key generation

- \--debug, -d

  Enable debugging output

- \--verbose, -v

  Output verbose information about the behaviour of cf-key

- \--version, -V

  Output the version of the software

- \--log-level, -g value

  Specify how detailed logs should be. Possible values: 'error', 'warning', 'notice', 'info', 'verbose', 'debug'

- \--output-file, -f value

  Specify an alternative output file than the default.

- \--key-type, -T value

  Specify a RSA key size in bits, the default value is 2048.

- \--show-hosts, -s

  Show lastseen hostnames and IP addresses

- \--no-truncate, -N

  Don't truncate -s / --show-hosts output

- \--remove-keys, -r value

  Remove keys for specified hostname/IP/MD5/SHA (cf-key -r SHA=12345, cf-key -r MD5=12345, cf-key -r host001, cf-key -r 203.0.113.1)

- \--force-removal, -x

  Force removal of keys

- \--install-license, -l value

  Install license file on Enterprise server (CFEngine Enterprise Only)

- \--print-digest, -p value

  Print digest of the specified public key

- \--trust-key, -t value

  Make cf-serverd/cf-agent trust the specified public key. Argument value is of the form \[\[USER@\]IPADDR:\]FILENAME where FILENAME is the local path of the public key for client at IPADDR address.

- \--color, -C value

  Enable colorized output. Possible values: 'always', 'auto', 'never'. If option is used, the default value is 'auto'

- \--timestamp, -Ò

  Log timestamps on each line of log output

- \--numeric, -n

  Do not lookup host names

## CFENGINE

CFEngine provides automated configuration management of large-scale computer systems. A system administrator describes the desired state of a system using CFEngine policy code. The program **cf-agent** reads policy code and attempts to bring the current system state to the desired state described. Policy code is downloaded by **cf-agent** from a **cf-serverd** daemon. The daemon **cf-execd** is responsible for running **cf-agent** periodically.\
 Documentation for CFEngine is available at https://docs.cfengine.com/.

## PROMISE THEORY

CFEngine is built on principles from promise theory, proposed by Mark Burgess in 2004. Promise theory is a model of voluntary cooperation between individual, autonomous actors or agents who publish their intentions to one another in the form of promises. A promise is a declaration of intent whose purpose is to increase the recipient's certainty about a claim of past, present or future behaviour. For a promise to increase certainty, the recipient needs to trust the promiser, but trust can also be built on the verification that previous promises have been kept, thus trust plays a symbiotic relationship with promises. \
 For an introduction to promise theory, please see http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.3294/

## AVAILABILITY

cf-key is part of CFEngine.\
 Binary packages may be downloaded from https://cfengine.com/download/.\
 The source code is available at https://github.com/cfengine/

## BUGS

Please see the public bug-tracker at https://northerntech.atlassian.net/projects/CFE/.\
 GitHub pull-requests may be submitted to https://github.com/cfengine/core/.

## SEE ALSO

[**cf-promises**(8)](/cf-promises/8.md), [**cf-agent**(8)](/cf-agent/8.md), [**cf-serverd**(8)](/cf-serverd/8.md), [**cf-execd**(8)](/cf-execd/8.md), [**cf-monitord**(8)](/cf-monitord/8.md), [**cf-runagent**(8)](/cf-runagent/8.md), [**cf-key**(8)](/cf-key/8.md)

## AUTHOR

Mark Burgess and Northern.tech AS