The
.B tripe
program is a server which can provide strong IP-level encryption and
-authentication between two co-operating hosts. The program and its
-protocol are deliberately very simple, to make analysing them easy and
-to help build trust rapidly in the system.
+authentication between co-operating hosts. The program and its protocol
+are deliberately very simple, to make analysing them easy and to help
+build trust rapidly in the system.
.SS "Overview"
The
.B tripe
If not given any command-line arguments,
.B tripe
will initialize by following these steps:
-.hP \*o
-It changes directory to
-.BR /var/lib/tripe .
-.hP \*o
+.hP 1.
+It sets the directory named by the
+.B TRIPEDIR
+environment variable (or
+.B /var/lib/tripe
+if the variable is unset) as the current directory.
+.hP 2.
It acquires a UDP socket with an arbitrary kernel-selected port number.
It will use this socket to send and receive all communications with its
peer servers. The port chosen may be discovered by means of the
.B PORT
admin command (see
.BR tripe\-admin (5)).
-.hP \*o
+.hP 3.
It loads the private key with the tag or type name
.B tripe\-dh
from the Catacomb-format file
They are maintained using the program
.BR key (1)
provided with the Catacomb distribution.)
-.hP \*o
+.hP 4.
It creates and listens to the Unix-domain socket
.BR tripesock .
.PP