usage:
certbot [SUBCOMMAND] [options] [-d DOMAIN] [-d DOMAIN] ...
Certbot can obtain and install HTTPS/TLS/SSL certificates. By default,
it will attempt to use a webserver both for obtaining and installing the
cert. The most common SUBCOMMANDS and flags are:
obtain, install, and renew certificates:
(default) run Obtain & install a cert in your current webserver
certonly Obtain or renew a cert, but do not install it
renew Renew all previously obtained certs that are near expiry
-d DOMAINS Comma-separated list of domains to obtain a cert for
--apache Use the Apache plugin for authentication & installation
--standalone Run a standalone webserver for authentication
--nginx Use the Nginx plugin for authentication & installation
--webroot Place files in a server's webroot folder for authentication
--manual Obtain certs interactively, or using shell script hooks
-n Run non-interactively
--test-cert Obtain a test cert from a staging server
--dry-run Test "renew" or "certonly" without saving any certs to disk
manage certificates:
certificates Display information about certs you have from Certbot
revoke Revoke a certificate (supply --cert-path)
delete Delete a certificate
manage your account with Let's Encrypt:
register Create a Let's Encrypt ACME account
--agree-tos Agree to the ACME server's Subscriber Agreement
-m EMAIL Email address for important account notifications
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
path to config file (default: /etc/letsencrypt/cli.ini
and ~/.config/letsencrypt/cli.ini)
-v, --verbose This flag can be used multiple times to incrementally
increase the verbosity of output, e.g. -vvv. (default:
-2)
-n, --non-interactive, --noninteractive
Run without ever asking for user input. This may
require additional command line flags; the client will
try to explain which ones are required if it finds one
missing (default: False)
--force-interactive Force Certbot to be interactive even if it detects
it's not being run in a terminal. This flag cannot be
used with the renew subcommand. (default: False)
-d DOMAIN, --domains DOMAIN, --domain DOMAIN
Domain names to apply. For multiple domains you can
use multiple -d flags or enter a comma separated list
of domains as a parameter. (default: Ask)
--cert-name CERTNAME Certificate name to apply. Only one certificate name
can be used per Certbot run. To see certificate names,
run 'certbot certificates'. When creating a new
certificate, specifies the new certificate's name.
(default: None)
--dry-run Perform a test run of the client, obtaining test
(invalid) certs but not saving them to disk. This can
currently only be used with the 'certonly' and 'renew'
subcommands. Note: Although --dry-run tries to avoid
making any persistent changes on a system, it is not
completely side-effect free: if used with webserver
authenticator plugins like apache and nginx, it makes
and then reverts temporary config changes in order to
obtain test certs, and reloads webservers to deploy
and then roll back those changes. It also calls --pre-
hook and --post-hook commands if they are defined
because they may be necessary to accurately simulate
renewal. --renew-hook commands are not called.
(default: False)
--preferred-challenges PREF_CHALLS
A sorted, comma delimited list of the preferred
challenge to use during authorization with the most
preferred challenge listed first (Eg, "dns" or "tls-
sni-01,http,dns"). Not all plugins support all
challenges. See
https://certbot.eff.org/docs/using.html#plugins for
details. ACME Challenges are versioned, but if you
pick "http" rather than "http-01", Certbot will select
the latest version automatically. (default: [])
--user-agent USER_AGENT
Set a custom user agent string for the client. User
agent strings allow the CA to collect high level
statistics about success rates by OS and plugin. If
you wish to hide your server OS version from the Let's
Encrypt server, set this to "". (default:
CertbotACMEClient/0.10.1 (Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS)
Authenticator/XXX Installer/YYY)
automation:
Arguments for automating execution & other tweaks
--keep-until-expiring, --keep, --reinstall
If the requested cert matches an existing cert, always
keep the existing one until it is due for renewal (for
the 'run' subcommand this means reinstall the existing
cert). (default: Ask)
--expand If an existing cert covers some subset of the
requested names, always expand and replace it with the
additional names. (default: Ask)
--version show program's version number and exit
--force-renewal, --renew-by-default
If a certificate already exists for the requested
domains, renew it now, regardless of whether it is
near expiry. (Often --keep-until-expiring is more
appropriate). Also implies --expand. (default: False)
--renew-with-new-domains
If a certificate already exists for the requested
certificate name but does not match the requested
domains, renew it now, regardless of whether it is
near expiry. (default: False)
--allow-subset-of-names
When performing domain validation, do not consider it
a failure if authorizations can not be obtained for a
strict subset of the requested domains. This may be
useful for allowing renewals for multiple domains to
succeed even if some domains no longer point at this
system. This option cannot be used with --csr.
(default: False)
--agree-tos Agree to the ACME Subscriber Agreement (default: Ask)
--account ACCOUNT_ID Account ID to use (default: None)
--duplicate Allow making a certificate lineage that duplicates an
existing one (both can be renewed in parallel)
(default: False)
--os-packages-only (certbot-auto only) install OS package dependencies
and then stop (default: False)
--no-self-upgrade (certbot-auto only) prevent the certbot-auto script
from upgrading itself to newer released versions
(default: Upgrade automatically)
-q, --quiet Silence all output except errors. Useful for
automation via cron. Implies --non-interactive.
(default: False)
security:
Security parameters & server settings
--rsa-key-size N Size of the RSA key. (default: 2048)
--must-staple Adds the OCSP Must Staple extension to the
certificate. Autoconfigures OCSP Stapling for
supported setups (Apache version >= 2.3.3 ). (default:
False)
--redirect Automatically redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS for
the newly authenticated vhost. (default: Ask)
--no-redirect Do not automatically redirect all HTTP traffic to
HTTPS for the newly authenticated vhost. (default:
Ask)
--hsts Add the Strict-Transport-Security header to every HTTP
response. Forcing browser to always use SSL for the
domain. Defends against SSL Stripping. (default:
False)
--uir Add the "Content-Security-Policy: upgrade-insecure-
requests" header to every HTTP response. Forcing the
browser to use https:// for every http:// resource.
(default: None)
--staple-ocsp Enables OCSP Stapling. A valid OCSP response is
stapled to the certificate that the server offers
during TLS. (default: None)
--strict-permissions Require that all configuration files are owned by the
current user; only needed if your config is somewhere
unsafe like /tmp/ (default: False)
testing:
The following flags are meant for testing and integration purposes only.
--test-cert, --staging
Use the staging server to obtain or revoke test
(invalid) certs; equivalent to --server https://acme-
staging.api.letsencrypt.org/directory (default: False)
--debug Show tracebacks in case of errors, and allow certbot-
auto execution on experimental platforms (default:
False)
--no-verify-ssl Disable verification of the ACME server's certificate.
(default: False)
--tls-sni-01-port TLS_SNI_01_PORT
Port used during tls-sni-01 challenge. This only
affects the port Certbot listens on. A conforming ACME
server will still attempt to connect on port 443.
(default: 443)
--http-01-port HTTP01_PORT
Port used in the http-01 challenge. This only affects
the port Certbot listens on. A conforming ACME server
will still attempt to connect on port 80. (default:
80)
--break-my-certs Be willing to replace or renew valid certs with
invalid (testing/staging) certs (default: False)
paths:
Arguments changing execution paths & servers
--cert-path CERT_PATH
Path to where cert is saved (with auth --csr),
installed from, or revoked. (default: None)
--key-path KEY_PATH Path to private key for cert installation or
revocation (if account key is missing) (default: None)
--chain-path CHAIN_PATH
Accompanying path to a certificate chain. (default:
None)
--config-dir CONFIG_DIR
Configuration directory. (default: /etc/letsencrypt)
--work-dir WORK_DIR Working directory. (default: /var/lib/letsencrypt)
--logs-dir LOGS_DIR Logs directory. (default: /var/log/letsencrypt)
--server SERVER ACME Directory Resource URI. (default:
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory)
manage:
Various subcommands and flags are available for managing your
certificates:
certificates List certificates managed by Certbot
delete Clean up all files related to a certificate
renew Renew all certificates (or one specifed with --cert-
name)
revoke Revoke a certificate specified with --cert-path
update_symlinks Recreate symlinks in your /etc/letsencrypt/live/
directory
run:
Options for obtaining & installing certs
certonly:
Options for modifying how a cert is obtained
--csr CSR Path to a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) in DER or
PEM format. Currently --csr only works with the
'certonly' subcommand. (default: None)
renew:
The 'renew' subcommand will attempt to renew all certificates (or more
precisely, certificate lineages) you have previously obtained if they are
close to expiry, and print a summary of the results. By default, 'renew'
will reuse the options used to create obtain or most recently successfully
renew each certificate lineage. You can try it with `--dry-run` first. For
more fine-grained control, you can renew individual lineages with the
`certonly` subcommand. Hooks are available to run commands before and
after renewal; see https://certbot.eff.org/docs/using.html#renewal for
more information on these.
--pre-hook PRE_HOOK Command to be run in a shell before obtaining any
certificates. Intended primarily for renewal, where it
can be used to temporarily shut down a webserver that
might conflict with the standalone plugin. This will
only be called if a certificate is actually to be
obtained/renewed. When renewing several certificates
that have identical pre-hooks, only the first will be
executed. (default: None)
--post-hook POST_HOOK
Command to be run in a shell after attempting to
obtain/renew certificates. Can be used to deploy
renewed certificates, or to restart any servers that
were stopped by --pre-hook. This is only run if an
attempt was made to obtain/renew a certificate. If
multiple renewed certificates have identical post-
hooks, only one will be run. (default: None)
--renew-hook RENEW_HOOK
Command to be run in a shell once for each
successfully renewed certificate. For this command,
the shell variable $RENEWED_LINEAGE will point to the
config live subdirectory containing the new certs and
keys; the shell variable $RENEWED_DOMAINS will contain
a space-delimited list of renewed cert domains
(default: None)
--disable-hook-validation
Ordinarily the commands specified for --pre-hook
/--post-hook/--renew-hook will be checked for
validity, to see if the programs being run are in the
$PATH, so that mistakes can be caught early, even when
the hooks aren't being run just yet. The validation is
rather simplistic and fails if you use more advanced
shell constructs, so you can use this switch to
disable it. (default: False)
certificates:
List certificates managed by Certbot
delete:
Options for deleting a certificate
revoke:
Options for revocation of certs
register:
Options for account registration & modification
--register-unsafely-without-email
Specifying this flag enables registering an account
with no email address. This is strongly discouraged,
because in the event of key loss or account compromise
you will irrevocably lose access to your account. You
will also be unable to receive notice about impending
expiration or revocation of your certificates. Updates
to the Subscriber Agreement will still affect you, and
will be effective 14 days after posting an update to
the web site. (default: False)
--update-registration
With the register verb, indicates that details
associated with an existing registration, such as the
e-mail address, should be updated, rather than
registering a new account. (default: False)
-m EMAIL, --email EMAIL
Email used for registration and recovery contact.
(default: Ask)
install:
Options for modifying how a cert is deployed
--fullchain-path FULLCHAIN_PATH
Accompanying path to a full certificate chain (cert
plus chain). (default: None)
config_changes:
Options for controlling which changes are displayed
--num NUM How many past revisions you want to be displayed
(default: None)
rollback:
Options for rolling back server configuration changes
--checkpoints N Revert configuration N number of checkpoints.
(default: 1)
plugins:
Options for for the "plugins" subcommand
--init Initialize plugins. (default: False)
--prepare Initialize and prepare plugins. (default: False)
--authenticators Limit to authenticator plugins only. (default: None)
--installers Limit to installer plugins only. (default: None)
update_symlinks:
Recreates cert and key symlinks in /etc/letsencrypt/live, if you changed
them by hand or edited a renewal configuration file
plugins:
Plugin Selection: Certbot client supports an extensible plugins
architecture. See 'certbot plugins' for a list of all installed plugins
and their names. You can force a particular plugin by setting options
provided below. Running --help <plugin_name> will list flags specific to
that plugin.
--configurator CONFIGURATOR
Name of the plugin that is both an authenticator and
an installer. Should not be used together with
--authenticator or --installer. (default: Ask)
-a AUTHENTICATOR, --authenticator AUTHENTICATOR
Authenticator plugin name. (default: None)
-i INSTALLER, --installer INSTALLER
Installer plugin name (also used to find domains).
(default: None)
--apache Obtain and install certs using Apache (default: False)
--nginx Obtain and install certs using Nginx (default: False)
--standalone Obtain certs using a "standalone" webserver. (default:
False)
--manual Provide laborious manual instructions for obtaining a
cert (default: False)
--webroot Obtain certs by placing files in a webroot directory.
(default: False)
nginx:
Nginx Web Server plugin - Alpha
--nginx-server-root NGINX_SERVER_ROOT
Nginx server root directory. (default: /etc/nginx)
--nginx-ctl NGINX_CTL
Path to the 'nginx' binary, used for 'configtest' and
retrieving nginx version number. (default: nginx)
standalone:
Spin up a temporary webserver
manual:
Authenticate through manual configuration or custom shell scripts. When
using shell scripts, an authenticator script must be provided. The
environment variables available to this script are $CERTBOT_DOMAIN which
contains the domain being authenticated, $CERTBOT_VALIDATION which is the
validation string, and $CERTBOT_TOKEN which is the filename of the
resource requested when performing an HTTP-01 challenge. An additional
cleanup script can also be provided and can use the additional variable
$CERTBOT_AUTH_OUTPUT which contains the stdout output from the auth
script.
--manual-auth-hook MANUAL_AUTH_HOOK
Path or command to execute for the authentication
script (default: None)
--manual-cleanup-hook MANUAL_CLEANUP_HOOK
Path or command to execute for the cleanup script
(default: None)
--manual-public-ip-logging-ok
Automatically allows public IP logging (default: Ask)
webroot:
Place files in webroot directory
--webroot-path WEBROOT_PATH, -w WEBROOT_PATH
public_html / webroot path. This can be specified
multiple times to handle different domains; each
domain will have the webroot path that preceded it.
For instance: `-w /var/www/example -d example.com -d
www.example.com -w /var/www/thing -d thing.net -d
m.thing.net` (default: Ask)
--webroot-map WEBROOT_MAP
JSON dictionary mapping domains to webroot paths; this
implies -d for each entry. You may need to escape this
from your shell. E.g.: --webroot-map
'{"eg1.is,m.eg1.is":"/www/eg1/", "eg2.is":"/www/eg2"}'
This option is merged with, but takes precedence over,
-w / -d entries. At present, if you put webroot-map in
a config file, it needs to be on a single line, like:
webroot-map = {"example.com":"/var/www"}. (default:
{})
apache:
Apache Web Server plugin - Beta
--apache-enmod APACHE_ENMOD
Path to the Apache 'a2enmod' binary. (default:
a2enmod)
--apache-dismod APACHE_DISMOD
Path to the Apache 'a2dismod' binary. (default:
a2dismod)
--apache-le-vhost-ext APACHE_LE_VHOST_EXT
SSL vhost configuration extension. (default: -le-
ssl.conf)
--apache-server-root APACHE_SERVER_ROOT
Apache server root directory. (default: /etc/apache2)
--apache-vhost-root APACHE_VHOST_ROOT
Apache server VirtualHost configuration root (default:
/etc/apache2/sites-available)
--apache-logs-root APACHE_LOGS_ROOT
Apache server logs directory (default:
/var/log/apache2)
--apache-challenge-location APACHE_CHALLENGE_LOCATION
Directory path for challenge configuration. (default:
/etc/apache2)
--apache-handle-modules APACHE_HANDLE_MODULES
Let installer handle enabling required modules for
you.(Only Ubuntu/Debian currently) (default: True)
--apache-handle-sites APACHE_HANDLE_SITES
Let installer handle enabling sites for you.(Only
Ubuntu/Debian currently) (default: True)
null:
Null Installer
