---
name: "checkpolicy"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "checkpolicy"
version: "3.8.1-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/checkpolicy"
---

# checkpolicy(8)

SELinux policy compiler

## NAME

checkpolicy - SELinux policy compiler

## SYNOPSIS

**checkpolicy** *\[-b\[F\]\] \[-C\] \[-d\] \[-U handle\_unknown (allow,deny,reject)\] \[-M\] \[-N\] \[-c policyvers\] \[-o output\_file\|-\] \[-S\] \[-t target\_platform (selinux,xen)\] \[-O\] \[-E\] \[-V\] \[input\_file\]*\

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page describes the **checkpolicy** command.

**checkpolicy** is a program that checks and compiles a SELinux security policy configuration into a binary representation that can be loaded into the kernel. If no input file name is specified, **checkpolicy** will attempt to read from policy.conf or policy, depending on whether the -b flag is specified.

## OPTIONS

- **-b,--binary**

  Read an existing binary policy file rather than a source policy.conf file.

- **-F,--conf**

  Write policy.conf file rather than binary policy file. Can only be used with binary policy file.

- **-C,--cil**

  Write CIL policy file rather than binary policy file.

- **-d,--debug**

  Enter debug mode after loading the policy.

- **-U,--handle-unknown \<action\>**

  Specify how the kernel should handle unknown classes or permissions (deny, allow or reject).

- **-M,--mls**

  Enable the MLS policy when checking and compiling the policy.

- **-N,--disable-neverallow**

  Do not check neverallow rules.

- **-c policyvers**

  Specify the policy version, defaults to the latest.

- **-o,--output filename**

  Write a policy file (binary, policy.conf, or CIL policy) to the specified filename. If - is given as filename, write it to standard output.

- **-S,--sort**

  Sort ocontexts before writing out the binary policy. This option makes output of checkpolicy consistent with binary policies created by semanage and secilc.

- **-t,--target**

  Specify the target platform (selinux or xen).

- **-O,--optimize**

  Optimize the final kernel policy (remove redundant rules).

- **-E,--werror**

  Treat warnings as errors

- **-V,--version**

  Show version information.

- **-h,--help**

  Show usage information.

## EXAMPLE

```
Generate policy.conf based on the system policy
# checkpolicy -b -M -F /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.33 -o policy.conf
Recompile system policy so that unknown permissions are denied (uses policy.conf from ^^).
Note that binary policy extension represents its version, which is subject to change
# checkpolicy -M -U deny -o /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.33 policy.conf
# load_policy
Generate CIL representation of current system policy
# checkpolicy -b -M -C /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.33 -o policy.out
```

## SEE ALSO

SELinux Reference Policy documentation at https://github.com/SELinuxProject/refpolicy/wiki

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Árpád Magosányi \<mag@bunuel.tii.matav.hu\>, and edited by Stephen Smalley \<stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com\>. The program was written by Stephen Smalley \<stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com\>.