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

doas.conf — doas configuration file

The doas(1) utility executes commands as other users according to the rules in the doas.conf configuration file.

The rules have the following format:

permit|deny [options] identity [as target] [cmd command [args ...]]

Rules consist of the following parts:

|deny
The action to be taken if this rule matches.
options
Options are:
The user is not required to enter a password.
Do not log successful command execution to syslogd(8).
After the user successfully authenticates, do not ask for a password again for some time.
Environment variables other than those listed in doas(1) are retained when creating the environment for the new process.
[variable ...] [variable=value ...] }
Keep or set the space-separated specified variables. Variables may also be removed with a leading ‘-’ or set using the latter syntax. If the first character of value is a ‘$’ then the value to be set is taken from the existing environment variable of the indicated name. This option is processed after the default environment has been created.
identity
The username to match. Groups may be specified by prepending a colon (‘:’). Numeric IDs are also accepted.
target
The target user the running user is allowed to run the command as. The default is all users.
command
The command the user is allowed or denied to run. The default is all commands. Be advised that it is best to specify absolute paths. If a relative path is specified, only a restricted PATH will be searched.
[argument ...]
Arguments to command. The command arguments provided by the user need to match those specified. The keyword args alone means that command must be run without any arguments.

The last matching rule determines the action taken. If no rule matches, the action is denied.

Comments can be put anywhere in the file using a hash mark (‘#’), and extend to the end of the current line.

The following quoting rules apply:

  • The text between a pair of double quotes (‘"’) is taken as is.
  • The backslash character (‘\’) escapes the next character, including new line characters, outside comments; as a result, comments may not be extended over multiple lines.
  • If quotes or backslashes are used in a word, it is not considered a keyword.

/etc/doas.conf
doas(1) configuration file.
/etc/examples/doas.conf
Example configuration file.

The following example permits user aja to install packages from a preferred mirror; group wheel to execute commands as any user while keeping the environment variables PS1 and SSH_AUTH_SOCK and unsetting ENV; permits tedu to run procmap as root without a password; and additionally permits root to run unrestricted commands as itself while retaining the original PATH.

permit persist setenv { PKG_CACHE PKG_PATH } aja cmd pkg_add
permit setenv { -ENV PS1=$DOAS_PS1 SSH_AUTH_SOCK } :wheel
permit nopass tedu as root cmd /usr/sbin/procmap
permit nopass keepenv setenv { PATH } root as root

doas(1), syslogd(8)

The doas.conf configuration file first appeared in OpenBSD 5.8.

Ted Unangst <tedu@openbsd.org>

October 9, 2020 x86_64