pingd.conf(5)

REQUIRED OPTIONS

sitename

A short name for your site/pinger. It is used in the statistics produced.

        Default: none
        Example: 'sitename' => 'testsite',

my_localpart

The local part of the pinger's email address.

In "[email protected]" the localpart is "pinger".

        Default: none
        Example: 'my_localpart' => 'pinger',

my_domain

The domain part (FQDN) of the pinger's email address.

In "[email protected]" the domain part is "remailer.example.com".

        Default: none
        Example: 'my_domain' => 'remailer.example.com',

operator_address

The email address of the human operator that runs this pinger.

        Default: none
        Example: 'operator_address' => '[email protected]',

It is used in several templates.

SYSTEM SPECIFIC OPTIONS

recipient_delimiter

The recipient_delimiter parameter specifies the separator between user names and address extensions (user+foo).

If it is an empty string Echolot does not make use of user defined mailboxes but rather encodes the message type etc in a Comment/Realname part of an address.

The use of recipient_delimiter is strongly recommended if your MTA setup supports it.

        Default: 'recipient_delimiter' => '+',
        Example: 'recipient_delimiter' => '-',
                 'recipient_delimiter' => '',

Example addresses:

with + as a recipient delimiter:
[email protected]

without recipient delimiter:
[email protected] (conf.2=1035541597=3baa2ae5)

dev_random

Where to read strong random data from - currently used only for generating our secret.

        Default: 'dev_random' => '/dev/random',

dev_urandom

Where to read weak random data from - currently used only for garbage generation.

        Default: 'dev_urandom' => '/dev/urandom',

sendmail

Path to the sendmail binary. It is expected to accept the "-f" and "-t" parameters.

        Default: 'sendmail' => '/usr/sbin/sendmail',
        Example: 'sendmail' => '/usr/lib/sendmail',

MAGIC NUMBERS

hash_len [integer]

Echolot uses email addresses of the form "foo+some_data=MAC@domain". MAC is a Message Authentication Code used to verify that the address was actually generated by this pinger using a secret which is set from random data the first time you run pingd. Echolot uses MD5 as the MAC hash function.

hash_len is the number of characters to include in the email address.

        Default: 'hash_len' => 8,
        Example: 'hash_len' => 4,

seconds_per_day [integer]

The length of one character in reliability and latency stats. One character usually stands for exactly one day (hence the name of this config option). Changing it in production use is probably a bad idea but shortening it might come in handy during debugging.

        Default: 'seconds_per_day' => 24*60*60,

stats_days [integer]

How many days (or whatever you configured seconds_per_day to really be) to have in the stats. This is 12 days.

        Default: 'stats_days' => 12,

NEW REMAILERS

fetch_new [bool]

Query new remailers for remailer-xxx replies by default.

        Default: 'fetch_new' => 1,
        Example: 'fetch_new' => 0,

ping_new [bool]

Ping new remailers by default.

        Default: 'ping_new' => 1,
        Example: 'ping_new' => 0,

show_new [bool]

Show new remailers in public stats by default.

        Default: 'show_new' => 1,
        Example: 'show_new' => 0,

STATISTICS GENERATION

separate_rlists [bool]

Also build separate rlists with data from only DSA pings, only RSA pings and only unencrypted pings.

        Default: 'separate_rlists' => 0,
        Example: 'separate_rlists' => 1,

combined_list [bool]

Build a combined list of all different stats too. While there is no standard format it is nice to read for the human eye.

        Default: 'combined_list' => 0,
        Example: 'combined_list' => 1,

thesaurus [bool]

Collect Thesaurus data and build Thesaurus Index.

        Default: 'thesaurus' => 1,
        Example: 'thesaurus' => 0,

fromlines [bool]

Build a summary of default From: header lines and list remailers which allow overriding them.

        Default: 'fromlines' => 1,
        Example: 'fromlines' => 0,

stats_sort_by_latency

In the statistics output remailers are sorted by reliability as the primary key. The secondary key is usually nickname. If you prefer to sort by latency rather than nick set this to 1 (-1 if you want to reverse the order).

        Default: 'stats_sort_by_latency' => 0,
        Example: 'stats_sort_by_latency' => 1,

TIMERS AND COUNTERS

processmail [seconds]

How often to process incoming email.

        Default: 'processmail' => 60, # every minute
        Example: 'processmail' => 5*60, # every 5 minutes

buildstats [seconds]

How often to build mlist etc.

        Default: 'buildstats' => 5*60, # every 5 minutes
        Example: 'buildstats' => 60*60, # hourly

chainping_update [seconds]

When building stats and we have chain pinging enabled (see do_chainpings), how often to rebuild chain stats. This can be a CPU intensive task therefore it's not updated every time stats are built.

        Default: 'chainping_update' => 4*60*60, # chain stats should never
                                                #  be older than 4 hours

buildkeys [seconds]

How often to build keyrings.

        Default: 'buildkeys' => 8*60*60, # every 8 hours
        Example: 'buildkeys' => 24*60*60, # daily

buildthesaurus [seconds]

How often to update thesaurus index page.

        Default: 'buildthesaurus' => 60*60, # hourly
        Example: 'buildthesaurus' => 24*60*60, # daily

commitprospectives [seconds]

How often to check for prospective new remailer addresses and commit them to the list of remailers.

        Default: 'commitprospectives' => 8*60*60, # every 8 hours
        Example: 'commitprospectives' => 24*60*60, # daily

expire [seconds]

How often to expire old keys, pings and remailers

        Default: 'expire' => 24*60*60, # daily
        Example: 'expire' => 8*60*60, # every 8 hours

getkeyconf_interval [seconds]

getkeyconf_every_nth_time [integer]

How often to query remailers for new keys and configuration data (remailer-xxx). Some requests are sent every getkeyconf_interval seconds. The same request to the same remailer is sent only every getkeyconf_every_nth_time time.

        Default: 'getkeyconf_interval'       => 5*60,    # send out requests
                                                         #  every 5 minutes
                 'getkeyconf_every_nth_time' => 24*60/5, # send out the same
                                                         #  request to the same
                                                         #  remailer once a day
        Example: 'getkeyconf_interval'       => 10*60,
                 'getkeyconf_every_nth_time' => 2*24*60/10, # new request every
                                                            #  other day

check_resurrection [seconds]

How often to check assumed dead remailers for resurrection.

        Default: 'check_resurrection' => 7*24*60*60, # weekly
        Example: 'check_resurrection' => 14*24*60*60, # every other week

pinger_interval [seconds]

ping_every_nth_time [integer]

How often to send pings. Pings are sent every pinger_interval seconds. The same remailer is pinged every ping_every_nth_time time pings are sent (This means the same remailer is pinged every pinger_interval * ping_every_nth_time seconds). It is done this way in order to avoid spikes.

        Default: 'pinger_interval'     => 5*60, # send out pings every 5 minutes
                 'ping_every_nth_time' => 24,   # send out pings to the same remailer every 24 calls, i.e. every 2 hours
        Example: 'pinger_interval'     => 60,    # send out pings every minute
                 'ping_every_nth_time' => 60,    # send out pings to the same remailer every 60 calls, i.e. every hour

chainpinger_interval [seconds]

chainping_every_nth_time [integer]

chainping_ic_every_nth_time [integer]

How often to send chain pings. Chain-Pings are sent every chainpinger_interval seconds. The same chain is pinged every chainping_every_nth_time time chain-pings are sent. Chains in Intensive Care (ic), that are chains that are either known or believed to be bad or are not tested enough yet (see chainping_minsample), should be tested more often: They are checked every chainping_ic_every_nth_time time chain-pings are sent.

        Default: 'chainpinger_interval'        => 5*60, # send out pings every 5 minutes
                 'chainping_every_nth_time'    => 2016, # send out pings to the same chain every 2016 calls, i.e. week
                 'chainping_ic_every_nth_time' => 288,  # send out pings to broken or unknown chains every 288 calls, i.e. daily

addresses_default_ttl [integer]

How many times to request remailer-xxx from a remailer (done every getkeyconf seconds, daily per default) without a reply before it is assumed dead.

        Default: 'addresses_default_ttl' => 5, # getkeyconf seconds (days if getkeyconf is 24*60*60, the default)
        Example: 'addresses_default_ttl' => 7,

check_resurrection_ttl [integer]

How many times to request remailer-xxx from an assumed dead remailer (done every check_resurrection seconds, weekly per default) without a reply before it is really considered dead.

        Default: 'check_resurrection_ttl' => 8, # check_resurrection seconds (weeks if check_resurrection is 7*24*60*60, the default)
        Example: 'check_resurrection_ttl' => 4,

prospective_addresses_ttl [seconds]

How long to keep information about a prospective address in the database. Addresses that are not committed to the list of remailer addresses are expired after this time.

        Default: 'prospective_addresses_ttl' => 5*24*60*60, # 5 days
        Example: 'prospective_addresses_ttl' =>14*24*60*60, # 2 weeks

reliable_auto_add_min [integer]

How many different remailers need to list an address in a remailer-conf reply to get it committed to the list of remailer addresses.

        Default: 'reliable_auto_add_min' => 6,
        Example: 'reliable_auto_add_min' => 3,

expire_keys [seconds]

After how long to expire received keys if they were not updated by remailer-key replies.

        Default: 'expire_keys' => 5*24*60*60, # 5 days
        Example: 'expire_keys' => 7*24*60*60, # 1 week

expire_confs [seconds]

After how long to expire received remailer-conf replies.

        Default: 'expire_confs' => 5*24*60*60, # 5 days
        Example: 'expire_confs' => 7*24*60*60, # 1 week

expire_pings [seconds]

After how long to expire pings. 12 is the value of choice because that is the time frame the statistics show. You should not make this smaller than 12 days.

        Default: 'expire_pings' => 12*24*60*60, # 12 days

expire_chainpings [seconds]

After how long to expire chain pings. This should probably be set to the same as chainping_period.

        Default: 'expire_chainpings' => 12*24*60*60, # 12 days

expire_thesaurus [seconds]

After how long to expire files in the thesaurus directory.

        Default: 'expire_thesaurus' => 21*24*60*60, # 2 weeks
        Example: 'expire_thesaurus' => 7*24*60*60, # 1 week

expire_fromlines [seconds]

After how long to expire header From: lines.

        Default: 'expire_fromlines' => 5*24*60*60, # 5 days
        Example: 'expire_fromlines' => 7*24*60*60, # 1 week

cleanup_tmpdir [seconds]

How often to clean old files from the temp directory.
Default: 'cleanup_tmpdir' => 24*60*60, # daily

metadata_backup [seconds]

How often to make backups of metadata and rotate them. If gzip is set, backups are compressed.

        Default: 'metadata_backup' => 8*60*60, # 8 hours
        Example: 'metadata_backup' => 24*60*60, # daily

metadata_backup_count [integer]

How many backups of metadata to keep.

        Default: 'metadata_backup_count' => 32, # keep the last 32 backups
        Example: 'metadata_backup_count' => 4, # keep 4 rotations

summary [seconds]

How often to print a status summary to the log.

        Default: 'summary' => 24*60*60, # daily
        Default: 'summary' => 12*60*60, # twice a day

DIRECTORIES AND FILES AND RELATED OPTIONS

homedir

The base directory of the Echolot installation. All other filenames and directory names are local to this directory. pingd changes into this directory upon startup.

        Default: The directory in which pingd is.
        Example: 'homedir' => '/home/pinger/echolot',

mailin

The Maildir directory or Mbox which is searched for new messages.

        Default: 'mailin' => 'mail',
        Example: 'mailin' => '/var/mail/echolot',

mailerrordir

The Maildir directory where messages are put that could not be parsed.

        Default: 'mailerrordir' => 'mail-errors',

save_errormails [bool]

Whether to keep error messages at all

        Default: 'save_errormails' => 0,
        Example: 'save_errormails' => 1,

resultdir

The directory where statistics and keyrings are put.

        Default: 'resultdir' => 'results',

thesaurusdir

The directory where Thesaurus data is put.

        Default: 'thesaurusdir' => 'results/thesaurus',

thesaurusindexfile

The Thesaurus index file.

        Default: 'thesaurusindexfile' => 'results/thesaurus/index',

fromlinesindexfile

The From Lines index file.

        Default: 'fromlinesindexfile' => 'results/from',

private_resultdir

The directory where private stats and keyrings are put (Remailers that have show set to false are shown here too).

        Default: 'private_resultdir' => 'results.private',

indexfilebasename

The file to write the index.html to (relative to the result directory).

        Default: 'indexfilebasename' => 'echolot',
        Example: 'indexfilebasename' => 'index',

gnupghome

The directory which is used as temporary GnuPG home for all keyring and encryption/decryption actions.

        Default: 'gnupghome' => 'gnupghome',

gnupg

Name of the GnuPG executable. If it is not in your PATH make sure to include path information.

If gnupg is an empty string, the "GnuPG::Interface" default (usually gpg) is used.

        Default: 'gnupg' => '',
        Example: 'gnupg' => '/home/pinger/bin/myGnuPG',

gzip

Name of the gzip executable. If it is not in your PATH make sure to include path information.

        Default: 'gzip' => 'gzip',

mixhome

The directory which is used as temporary Mixmaster home for all keyring and encryption/decryption actions.

        Default: 'mixhome' => 'mixhome',
        Example: 'mixhome' => '/home/pinger/Mix',

mixmaster

Name of the mixmaster executable. If it is not in your PATH make sure to include path information.

        Default: 'mixmaster' => 'mix',
        Example: 'mixmaster' => '/home/pinger/Mix/mix',

tmpdir

General purpose temp directory. Make sure it is not shared with other applications.

        Default: 'tmpdir' => 'tmp',

commands_file

A file where commands to the daemon process are stored. The client puts commands (like add a new remailer) in it and then sends a HUP to the daemon process which reads and empties the file.

        Default: 'commands_file' => 'commands.txt',

pidfile

The daemon's PID file. The daemon's Process ID is stored in this file. As long as it exists pingd refuses to start up in daemon mode.

        Default: 'pidfile' => 'pingd.pid',

broken1

File listing broken type I remailer chains. If it does not exist, the part is skipped in generated stats. Otherwise its content is copied in verbatim.

        Default: 'broken1' => 'broken1.txt',
        Example content:
                (havenco cmeclax)
                (frog3 nycrem)

broken2

File listing broken type II remailer chains. If it does not exist, the part is skipped in generated stats. Otherwise its content is copied in verbatim.

        Default: 'broken2' => 'broken2.txt',
        Example content:
                (freedom lcs)
                (* xganon)

sameop

File listing remailers that have the same operator or share a machine or other important infrastructure. If it does not exist, the part is skipped in generated stats. Otherwise its content is copied in verbatim.

        Default: 'sameop' => 'sameop.txt',
        Example content:
                (xganon2 xganon)
                (cracker redneck)

LOGGING

logfile

File to write logs to. This file is reopened on SIGHUP.

        Default: 'logfile' => 'pingd.log',
        Example: 'logfile' => '/var/log/echolot/pingd.log',

loglevel

Minimum severity of messages to include in log file. Possible values are trace, debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert, and emergency.

        Default: 'loglevel' => 'info',
        Example: 'loglevel' => 'debug',

MISCELLANEOUS

write_meta_files [bool]

Whether to write meta files for each created file. These files include meta information for http servers and http clients like the date when a specific page expires.

        Default: 'write_meta_files' => 1,

meta_extension

The extension that such metafiles (see above) should have.

        Default: 'meta_extension' => '.meta',

random_garbage [integer]

Pings usually are quite short. Some 100 bytes are sufficient to relay all the information that is required. To make them not stand out that obviously, pings are padded using random garbage of random length.

random_garbage is the top limit for the amount of bytes to add. The actual number is randomly generated and uniformly distributed over [0, random_garbage]

        Default: 'random_garbage' => '8192',

CHAIN PINGING

do_chainpings [bool]

Whether or not to do chain pings. Chain pings test all chains of two remailers and come up with a list of broken chains. This produces a non-trivial amount of traffic.

        Default: 'do_chainpings' => 1,

show_chainpings [bool]

Show the results of our chainpinging in public stats.

        Default: 'show_chainpings' => 1,

chainping_fudge

What proportion of the expected replies derived from one-hop stats must return before a chain is not declared broken.

        Default: 'chainping_fudge' => 0.3, # if less than 0.3 * rel1 * rel2 make it, the chain is really broken

chainping_grace

The factor of time in addition to the guessed latency derived from one-hop stats before a chain ping is considered lost

        Default: 'chainping_grace' => 1.5, # don't count pings sent no longer than 1.5 * (lat1 + lat2) ago

chainping_period [seconds]

What time frame is taken into account when calculating chain stats. This should probably be smaller than expire_chainpings.

        Default: 'chainping_period' => 12*24*60*60, # 12 days

chainping_minsample [seconds]

Have at least as many sent (and not within grace) chain pings before declaring a chain broken.

        Default: 'chainping_minsample' => 3, # have at least sent 3 pings before judging any chain

chainping_allbad_factor

How many chains "(A x)" must be bad before "(A *)" is listed. The value is given as a proportion of all available remailers.

        Default: chainping_allbad_factor => 0.5, # at least 50% of possible chains (A x) need to fail for (A *) to be listed in broken chains

PINGING TYPES

do_pings

do_pings determines which ping types are sent. It is a hash that has the following keys:

cpunk-dsa

Send out CPunk pings to CPunk remailers with their DSA key.

cpunk-rsa

Send out CPunk pings to CPunk remailers with their RSA key.

cpunk-clear

Send out unencrypted pings to CPunk remailers that don't have pgponly in their capsstring.

mix

Pings mixmaster remailers.

        Default: 'do_pings' => {
           'cpunk-dsa' => 1,
           'cpunk-rsa' => 1,
           'cpunk-clear' => 1,
           'mix' => 1
          },

which_chainpings

which_chainpings controls some aspects of chain pinging. It's a hash over chaintypes - currently mix and cpunk. Each entry is a reference to an array which specifies the preference for key types in that chaintype.

        Default: which_chainpings => {
           'cpunk' => [ qw{cpunk-dsa cpunk-rsa cpunk-clear} ],
           'mix' => [ qw{mix} ]
          },

This means that in the case of cpunk chain pings we prefer using cpunk-dsa over cpunk-rsa which in turn we prefer to cpunk-clear. For mix there's only mix.

pings_weight

Not all pings have the same influence on the average reliability calcluated. Very new pings don't count fully since there is some margin of error. Similarly very old pings are not that interesting either.

By default days 1 to 4 count fully (with weight 1), the older they are the less they count.

        Default: pings_weight => [ qw{0.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 } ],

TEMPLATES

templates

The template files are used to generate the HTML version of all Echolot output. It is a hash of hashes which each have following keys: thesaurusindexfile, mlist, mlist2, rlist, rlist-rsa, rlist-dsa, rlist-clear, rlist2, rlist2-rsa, rlist2-dsa, rlist2-clear, and clist.

The outer hash keys are for language selection.

        Default: 'templates' => {
            'default' => {
                    'thesaurusindexfile' => 'templates/thesaurusindex.html',
                    'mlist'              => 'templates/mlist.html',
                    'mlist2'             => 'templates/mlist2.html',
                    'rlist'              => 'templates/rlist.html',
                    'rlist-rsa'          => 'templates/rlist-rsa.html',
                    'rlist-dsa'          => 'templates/rlist-dsa.html',
                    'rlist-clear'        => 'templates/rlist-clear.html',
                    'rlist2'             => 'templates/rlist2.html',
                    'rlist2-rsa'         => 'templates/rlist2-rsa.html',
                    'rlist2-dsa'         => 'templates/rlist2-dsa.html',
                    'rlist2-clear'       => 'templates/rlist2-clear.html',
                    'clist'              => 'templates/clist.html',
            },
            'de' => { 
                   'thesaurusindexfile' => 'templates/thesaurusindex.de.html',
                   ....
            },
            'pl' => { 
                   'thesaurusindexfile' => 'templates/thesaurusindex.pl.html',
                   ....
            }
          };

echolot_css

Location of the CSS file. This is copied to resultdir/echolot.css.

        Default: 'echolot_css'               => 'templates/echolot.css',

STRINGS

remailerxxxtext

The text to send along with remailer-xxx queries. The template variables address and operator_address are substituted for their real values.

        Default: 'remailerxxxtext' => "Hello,\n".
            "\n".
            "This message requests remailer configuration data. The pinging software thinks\n".
            "<TMPL_VAR NAME=\"address\"> is a remailer. Either it has been told so by the\n".
            "maintainer of the pinger or it found the address in a remailer-conf or\n".
            "remailer-key reply of some other remailer.\n".
            "\n".
            "If this is _not_ a remailer, you can tell this pinger that and it will stop\n".
            "sending you those requests immediately (otherwise it will try a few more times).\n".
            "Just reply and make sure the following is the first line of your message:\n".
            "   not a remailer\n".
            "\n".
            "If you want to talk to a human please mail <TMPL_VAR NAME=\"operator_address\">.\n",