Improve and clean up the documentation

README.md

@@ -14,33 +14,34 @@ Requirements
   * Python (2.7+ and 3.3+ should work)
   * python-dateutil
   * PyYAML
-  * pyOpenSSL
+  * pyOpenSSL (0.15.1+)
 
 Initial Setup
 -------------
 
 First, you need to provide two key files for the ACME protocol:
   * The account key is expected at `/etc/acme/account.key`
-  * The domain key is expected at `/etc/acme/server.key` (note: only one domain key is required for all domains used in the same instance of acertmgr)
+  * The domain key is expected at `/etc/acme/server.key` (Note: only one domain key is required for all domains used in the same instance of acertmgr)
-If you are missing these keys, you can create them using `openssl genrsa 4096 > /etc/acme/account.key` and `openssl genrsa 4096 > /etc/acme/server.key` respectively.
+  * If you are missing these keys, you can create them using `openssl genrsa 4096 > /etc/acme/account.key` and `openssl genrsa 4096 > /etc/acme/server.key` respectively
   * Do not forget to set proper permissions of the keys using `chmod 0400 /etc/acme/*.key`
 
 Secondly, you should download the letsencrypt CA certificate:
-  * wget -O /etc/acme/lets-encrypt-x3-cross-signed.pem https://letsencrypt.org/certs/lets-encrypt-x3-cross-signed.pem
+  * `wget -O /etc/acme/lets-encrypt-x3-cross-signed.pem https://letsencrypt.org/certs/lets-encrypt-x3-cross-signed.pem`
-  * The path to this file must be entered in the configuration, see below.
+  * The path to this file must be entered in the configuration, see examples below
 
-Thirdly, you should decide which challenge mode you want to use with acertmgr
+Thirdly, you should decide which challenge mode you want to use with acertmgr:
-  * webdir: In this mode, challenges are put into a directory, and served by an existing webserver. Make sure the target directory exists!
+  * webdir: In this mode, challenges are put into a directory, and served by an existing webserver
   * standalone: In this mode, challenges are completed by acertmgr directly.
-    This starts a webserver to solve the challenges, which can be used standalone or together with an existing webserver that forwards request to a specified local port.
+    This starts a webserver to solve the challenges, which can be used standalone or together with an existing webserver that forwards request to a specified local port
+  * Make sure that the `webdir` directory exists in both cases (Note: the standalone webserver does not yet serve the files in situ)
 
 Finally, you need to setup the configuration files, as shown in the next section.
-While testing, you can use the acme-staging authority instead, so you avoid issuing too many certificates.
+While testing, you can use the acme-staging authority instead, in order to avoid issuing too many certificates.
 
 Configuration
 -------------
 
-The main configuration is read from `/etc/acme/acme.conf`, domains for which certificates should be obtained/renewed should be configured in `/etc/acme/domains.d/{fqdn}.conf`.
+The main configuration is read from `/etc/acme/acme.conf`, domains for which certificates should be obtained/renewed should be configured in `/etc/acme/domains.d/*.conf`.
 
 All configuration files use yaml syntax.
 
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ webdir: /var/www/acme-challenge/
 authority: "https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org"
 #authority: "https://acme-staging.api.letsencrypt.org"
 
+# settings under this section apply to all domains unless overridden
 defaults:
   cafile: /etc/acme/lets-encrypt-x3-cross-signed.pem
 
@@ -67,22 +69,17 @@ defaults:
 
 mail.example.com:
 - path: /etc/postfix/ssl/mail.key
-  user: postfix
+  user: root
-  group: postfix
+  group: root
   perm: '400'
   format: key
   action: '/etc/init.d/postfix reload'
 - path: /etc/postfix/ssl/mail.crt
-  user: postfix
+  user: root
-  group: postfix
+  group: root
   perm: '400'
-  format: crt
+  format: crt,ca
   action: '/etc/init.d/postfix reload'
-- path: /etc/dovecot/ssl/mail.crt
-  user: dovecot
-  group: dovecot
-  perm: '400'
-  action: '/etc/init.d/dovecot reload'
 
 jabber.example.com:
 - path: /etc/ejabberd/server.pem
@@ -92,6 +89,7 @@ jabber.example.com:
   format: key,crt,ca
   action: '/etc/init.d/ejabberd restart'
 
+# this will create a certificate with subject alternative names
 www.example.com example.com:
 - path: /var/www/ssl/cert.pem
   user: apache
@@ -112,5 +110,5 @@ Security
 
 Please keep the following in mind when using this software:
 
-  * DO read the source code, since it is intended to be run as root
+  * DO read the source code, since it has to be run as root
   * Make sure that your configuration files are NOT writable by other users - arbitrary commands can be executed after updating certificates