OCAT(1)

NAME
ocat - OnionCat creates a transparent IPv6 layer on top of Tor's hidden services.

SYNOPSIS
ocat -i onion_id (1st form)
ocat -o IPv6_address (2nd form)
ocat [OPTION] onion_id (3rd form)
ocat -R [OPTION] (4th form)

DESCRIPTION
OnionCat creates a transparent IPv6 layer on top of Tor's hidden services. It transmits any kind of IP-based data transparently through the Tor network on a location hidden basis. You can think of it as a point-to-multipoint VPN between hidden services. OnionCat is a stand-alone application which runs in userland and is a connector between Tor and the local OS. Any protocol which is based on IP can be transmitted. Of course, UDP and TCP (and probably ICMP) are the most important ones but all other protocols can also be forwarded through it. OnionCat opens a TUN device and assigns an IPv6 address to it. All packets forwarded to the TUN device by the kernel are forwarded by OnionCat to other OnionCats listening on Tor's hidden service ports. The IPv6 address depends on the onion_id of the locally configured hidden service (see tor(8)). Depending on the configuration of Tor the onion_id usually can be found at /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname or similar location.

  OPTIONS

-4  Enable IPv4 forwarding. See http://www.cypherpunk.at/onioncat/wiki/IPv4 for further information on IPv4.

-a  OnionCat creates a log file at $HOME/.ocat/connect_log. All incomming connects are logged to that file. $HOME is determined from the user under which OnionCat runs (see option -u).

-b  Run OnionCat in background. This is default. OnionCat will detach from a running shell and close standard IO if no log file is given with option -L.

-B  Run OnionCat in foreground.

-C  Disable the local controller interface. The controller interfaces listens on localhost (127.0.0.1 and ::1 port 8066) for incomming connections. It's currently used for debugging purpose and not thread-safe and does not have any kind of authentication or authorization mechanism. Hence, it should not be used in production environments.

-d n
    Set debug level to n. Default = 7 which is maximum. Debug output will only be created if OnionCat was compiled with option DEBUG (i.e. configure was run with option --enable-debug).

-f config file
    Read initial configuration from config file.

-h  Display short usage message and shows options.

-i  Convert onion_id to IPv6 address and exit.

-l [ip:]port
    Bind Onioncat to specific ip and/or port number for incoming connections. This defaults to 127.0.0.1:8060. This option could be set multiple times. IPv6 addresses must be given in square brackets.

-L log_file
    Log output to log_file instead of stderr.

-o IPv6 address
    Convert IPv6 address to onion_id and exit program.

-p  Use TAP device instead of TUN device. There are a view differences. See TAP DEVICE later.

-P pid file
    Create pid file instead of /var/run/ocat.pid.

-r  Run OnionCat as root and don't change user id (see option -u).

-R  Use this option only if you really know what you do! OnionCat generates a random local onion_id. With this option it is not necessary to add a hidden service to the Tor configuration file torrc. One might use OnionCat services within Tor as usualy but it is NOT possible to receive incoming connections. If you plan to also receive connections (e.g. because you provide a service or you use software which opens sockets for incomming connections like Bitorrent) you MUST configure a hidden service and supply its hostname to OnionCat on the command line.

-s port
    Set OnionCat's virtual hidden service port to port.

-t (IP|[IP:]port)
    Set Tor SOCKS IP and/or port. If no IP is specified 127.0.0.1 will be used, if no port is specified 9050 will be used as defaults. IPv6 addresses must be escaped by square brackets.

-T tun_dev
    TUN device file to open for creation of TUN interface, defaults to /dev/net/tun. Setup of a TUN device needs root permissions. OnionCat automatically changes userid after the TUN device is set up correctly.

-u username
    username under which ocat should run. The uid is changed as soon as possible after tun device setup.

  TAP DEVICE
Usually OnionCat opens a TUN device which is a layer 3 interface. With option -p OnionCat opens a TAP device instead which is a virtual ethernet (layer 2) interface.

NOTES
This man page is still not finished...

FILES
$HOME/.ocat/connect_log

AUTHOR
Concepts, software, and man page written by Bernhard R. Fischer. Package maintenance by Ferdinand Haselbacher. Additional support by Daniel Haslinger.

SEE ALSO
OnionCat project page http://www.cypherpunk.at/onioncat/ Tor project homepage http://www.torproject.org/

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2008-2009 Bernhard R. Fischer. This file is part of OnionCat. OnionCat is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License. OnionCat is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with OnionCat. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.