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RADIUS.CONF(5)		       File Formats Manual		  RADIUS.CONF(5)

NAME
     radius.conf -- RADIUS client configuration file

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/radius.conf

DESCRIPTION
     radius.conf  contains  the  information  necessary  to configure the RADIUS
     client library.  It is parsed by rad_config(3).  The file contains  one  or
     more  lines  of  text, each describing a single RADIUS server which will be
     used by the library.  Leading white space is ignored, as  are  empty  lines
     and lines containing only comments.

     A RADIUS server is described by three to seven fields on a line:

	   Service type
	   Server host
	   Shared secret
	   Timeout
	   Retries
	   Dead time
	   Bind address

     The  fields  are separated by white space.  The `#' character at the begin-
     ning of a field begins a comment, which extends to the end of the line.   A
     field  may be enclosed in double quotes, in which case it may contain white
     space and/or begin with the `#' character.  Within  a  quoted  string,  the
     double quote character can be represented by `\"', and the backslash can be
     represented by `\\'.  No other escape sequences are supported.

     The  first field gives the service type, either `auth' for RADIUS authenti-
     cation or `acct' for RADIUS accounting.  If a single server  provides  both
     services,	two  lines  are  required in the file.	Earlier versions of this
     file did not include a service type.  For backward  compatibility,  if  the
     first  field  is not `auth' or `acct' the library behaves as if `auth' were
     specified, and interprets the fields in the line as if they were fields two
     through five.

     The second field specifies the server host, either as a fully qualified do-
     main name or as a dotted-quad IP address.	The host may optionally be  fol-
     lowed  by a `:' and a numeric port number, without intervening white space.
     If the port specification is  omitted,  it  defaults  to  the  `radius'  or
     `radacct'	service  in  the /etc/services file for service types `auth' and
     `acct', respectively.  If no such entry is present, the standard ports 1812
     and 1813 are used.

     The third field contains the shared secret, which should be known	only  to
     the  client  and  server  hosts.	It is an arbitrary string of characters,
     though it must be enclosed in double quotes if  it  contains  white  space.
     The  shared secret may be any length, but the RADIUS protocol uses only the
     first 128 characters.  N.B., some popular RADIUS servers  have  bugs  which
     prevent them from working properly with secrets longer than 16 characters.

     The  fourth field contains a decimal integer specifying the timeout in sec-
     onds for receiving a valid reply from the server.	If this field  is  omit-
     ted, it defaults to 3 seconds.

     The fifth field contains a decimal integer specifying the maximum number of
     attempts  that  will  be made to authenticate with the server before giving
     up.  If omitted, it defaults to 3 attempts.  Note, this is the total number
     of attempts and not the number of retries.

     The sixth field contains a decimal integer specifying a  time  interval  in
     seconds  when  the  server will not requested if it was inaccessible on the
     last try. 0 means ask always.

     The seventh field contains an IP address on multihomed host.  All	requests
     will be binded to this IP.

     Up  to  10  RADIUS  servers  may  be  specified for each service type.  The
     servers are tried in round-robin fashion, until a	valid  response  is  re-
     ceived or the maximum number of tries has been reached for all servers.

     The  standard location for this file is /etc/radius.conf.	But an alternate
     pathname may be specified in the call to  rad_config(3).	Since  the  file
     contains sensitive information in the form of the shared secrets, it should
     not be readable except by root.

FILES
     /etc/radius.conf

EXAMPLES
     # A simple entry using all the defaults:
     acct  radius1.domain.com  OurLittleSecret

     # A server still using the obsolete RADIUS port, with increased
     # timeout and maximum tries:
     auth  auth.domain.com:1645  "I can't see you"  5  4

     # As above but set dead time and bind address
     auth  auth.domain.com:1645  "I can't see you"  5  4  60  192.168.1.8

     # A server specified by its IP address:
     auth  192.168.27.81  $X*#..38947ax-+=

SEE ALSO
     libradius(3)

     C.  Rigney, et al, Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS), RFC
     2138.

     C. Rigney, RADIUS Accounting, RFC 2139.

AUTHORS
     This documentation was written by John Polstra, and donated to the  FreeBSD
     project by Juniper Networks, Inc.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	October 30, 1999		  RADIUS.CONF(5)

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