NAME

himitsu-ipc - IPC protocol implemented by himitsud(1)

DESCRIPTION

The Himitsu IPC protocol is a line-oriented text protocol using the UTF-8 encoding and LF line endings. It is transmitted over a Unix socket which is located at $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/himitsu.

Interactions with this interface are command/reply oriented, with commands initiated by the client and replies sent by the server. Both commands and replies have the same semantic structure. Each begins with a command word (an alphanumeric string) which defines the operation requested. There may or may not be additional arguments provided. If there are no additional arguments the command word is immediately followed by LF. Otherwise, following the command word is a space, then a sequence of arbitrary printable UTF-8 characters until the line terminator is reached. The structure of the argument string depends on the command word.

This man page assumes knowledge of the KEY FORMAT and QUERY SYNTAX described in himitsu(7). Note also that commands which accept flags process them in a manner compatible with getopt(3).

All commands are subject to a significant delay before the reply while the user is prompted to provide consent or to unlock the keyring.

COMMANDS

The following commands are recognized by the server:

add key...

Adds a new key to the key store. The server will send a key reply echoing the new key (without secrets), followed by an end reply.

del query...

Removes keys from the key store which match the provided query. The user will be prompted to consent to this operation. The server will send a key reply for each deleted key (without secrets), followed by an end reply.

query [-d] query...

Queries the key store for keys matching the provided query. Matching keys are returned via a series of key replies, terminated with an end reply to signal the end of the list. If the -d option is provided, the private values will be decrypted after requesting user consent.

quit

Requests that the daemon terminate itself. This command is only recognized if himitsud(1) was started with the -D flag. No reply is sent.

REPLIES

The following replies are sent to the client:

key key...

Provides a single key store entry to the user.

end

Signals the end of a list of key replies.

error message...

Indicates that a requested operation resulted in an error. The message is both human-friendly and consistent, such that it can be displayed to the user or matched against an internal database of semantic error strings in the client.

EXAMPLE SESSION

An example session, with <= indicating messages from the server to the client, and => vice-versa. Any of the commands may be separated from their replies by several seconds while the user interacts with the prompter.

=> query proto=web
<= key proto=web host=a.example.org user=jdoe password!
<= key proto=web host=b.example.org user=jdoe password!
<= key proto=web host=c.example.org user=jdoe password!
<= key proto=web host=d.example.org user=jdoe password!
<= end
=> add proto=web host=e.example.org user=jdoe password!=hunter2
<= key proto=web host=e.example.org user=jdoe password!
<= end
=> query -d proto=web host=e.example.org
=> key proto=web host=e.example.org user=jdoe password!=hunter2
<= end

AUTHORS

Maintained by Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>, who is assisted by other contributors. Up-to-date source code can be found at https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/himitsu, and bugs/patches can be submitted by email to ~sircmpwn/himitsu-devel@lists.sr.ht.

Himitsu