PKSD(8)

NAME
pksd - Public Key Server Daemon

SYNOPSIS
pksd PATH/pksd.conf

DESCRIPTION
pksd is a daemon which implements a pgp public key server. It supports searches, key requests, additions, and modifications via web and email interfaces. The server takes a single argument, which is the name of the configuration file. The format of this file is documented in pksd.conf(8). The server supports queries via the web and via an email interface. The web interface implements a few form URI's which are described in the accompanying design document. The email interface parses messages for requests, and sends email with the responses. The configuration file includes variables for customizing the port number of the web server, the header file included in each mail reply, help files in different languages, and a few other features. In order to control the running daemon, the pksdctl(8) program is used to send messages to the running server via a unix domain socket. The type and syntax of these messages is documents in the pksdctl(8) man page.

INCREMENTAL MESSAGES
The mail server is also used for incremental distribution of modifications between peer key servers. When a key server receives an update (meaning new keys, signatures, revocations, etc), this update is forwarded to the servers listed as peers (with the syncsite keyword) in the pksd.conf(5) file. In order to avoid updates looping forever, the servers which have processed the update are listed in the message. The this_site keyword identifies the local site. To improve performance, when an incremental or add is received, only the parts of that request which are not already part of the key server database are included. If an incremental or add contains no new data, no incremental is generated at all.

DISABLED KEYS
It is not useful to remove a key from the key server database, since it will probably just disappear. In order to remove keys from circulation for whatever reason, the key can be made "disabled". This server uses the disabled flag in the pgp file formats. In order to prevent this flag from being misused, the disabled flag is treated specially by the server. When a keyring is merged into the database, the disabled flags are stripped. Disabled keys cannot be retreived from the database, but they are be returned by searches.

FILES
pksd.conf

SEE ALSO
pks-intro(8), pksdctl(8), pksd.conf(5)

BUGS
pksd should automatically checkpoint periodically.

AUTHOR
Marc Horowitz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology