acme.sh README

The project's README from github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh. As one markdown file: README.md.

ZeroSSL

🔐 acme.sh

An ACME Protocol Client Written Purely in Shell

FreeBSD OpenBSD NetBSD MacOS Ubuntu Windows Solaris DragonFlyBSD MidnightBSD GhostBSD Omnios OpenIndiana Tribblix Haiku Hurd OpenEuler HardenedBSD OPNsense

Shellcheck PebbleStrict DockerHub

Financial Contributors on Open Collective Join the chat at Gitter Docker stars Docker pulls

✨ Features

💡 It's probably the easiest & smartest shell script to automatically issue & renew free certificates.

📚 Wiki • 🐳 Docker Guide • 🐦 Twitter

🌏 中文说明

🏆 Who Uses acme.sh?

🖥️ Tested OS

NO Status Platform
1 MacOS Mac OSX
2 Windows Windows (cygwin with curl, openssl and crontab included)
3 FreeBSD FreeBSD
4 Solaris Solaris
5 Ubuntu Ubuntu
6 NA pfsense
7 OpenBSD OpenBSD
8 NetBSD NetBSD
9 DragonFlyBSD DragonFlyBSD
10 MidnightBSD MidnightBSD
11 Omnios Omnios
12 OpenIndiana OpenIndiana
13 Linux Debian
14 Linux openSUSE
15 Linux Alpine Linux (with curl)
16 Linux Archlinux
17 Linux fedora
18 Linux Kali Linux
19 Linux Oracle Linux
20 Linux Mageia
21 Linux Gentoo Linux
22 ----- Cloud Linux https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/issues/111
23 ----- OpenWRT: Tested and working. See wiki page
24 Proxmox: See Proxmox VE Wiki. Version 4.x, 5.0, 5.1, version 5.2 and up
25 Haiku Haiku OS
26 Tribblix Tribblix
27 GhostBSD GhostBSD
28 Hurd GNU Hurd
29 OpenEuler openEuler
30 HardenedBSD HardenedBSD
31 OPNsense OPNsense

🧪 Check our testing project

🖥️ The testing VMs are supported by vmactions.org

🏛️ Supported CA

CA Status
ZeroSSL.com CA ⭐ Default
Letsencrypt.org CA ✅ Supported
SSL.com CA ✅ Supported
Google.com Public CA ✅ Supported
Actalis.com CA ✅ Supported
Pebble strict Mode ✅ Supported
Any RFC8555-compliant CA ✅ Supported

⚙️ Supported Modes

Mode Description
📁 Webroot mode Use existing webroot directory
🖥️ Standalone mode Built-in webserver on port 80
🔐 Standalone tls-alpn mode Built-in webserver on port 443
🪶 Apache mode Use Apache for verification
⚡ Nginx mode Use Nginx for verification
🌐 DNS mode Use DNS TXT records
🔗 DNS alias mode Use DNS alias for verification
📡 Stateless mode Stateless verification
📌 DNS persist mode Persistent DNS TXT record (draft-ietf-acme-dns-persist-01)

📖 Usage Guide

1️⃣ How to Install

📥 Install Online

Check this project: https://github.com/acmesh-official/get.acme.sh

curl https://get.acme.sh | sh -s [email protected]

Or:

wget -O -  https://get.acme.sh | sh -s [email protected]

📦 Install from Git

Clone this project and launch installation:

git clone https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh.git
cd ./acme.sh
./acme.sh --install -m [email protected]

💡 You don't have to be root then, although it is recommended.

📚 Advanced Installation: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-install

The installer will perform 3 actions:

  1. Create and copy acme.sh to your home dir ($HOME): ~/.acme.sh/. All certs will be placed in this folder too.
  2. Create alias for: acme.sh=~/.acme.sh/acme.sh.
  3. Create daily cron job to check and renew the certs if needed.

Cron entry example:

0 0 * * * "/home/user/.acme.sh"/acme.sh --cron --home "/home/user/.acme.sh" > /dev/null

⚠️ After the installation, you must close the current terminal and reopen it to make the alias take effect.

✅ You are ready to issue certs now!

Show help message:

acme.sh -h

🔏 Verify a Release

Release tags from 3.1.5 on are signed with the maintainer's SSH key. The signing happens on the maintainer's machine, so the private key is never available to CI. The public half is allowed_signers in this repository. From a clone:

git config gpg.ssh.allowedSignersFile allowed_signers

git verify-tag 3.1.5

The signature covers the tag object, which pins the commit and therefore the whole tree, so a good signature verifies every file at that release and no separate tarball checksum is needed. Build a tarball from the verified tag:

git archive --format=tar.gz --prefix=acme.sh-3.1.5/ 3.1.5 > acme.sh-3.1.5.tar.gz

⚠️ Tags up to 3.1.4 predate the signing key and are unsigned.

2️⃣ Issue a Certificate

Example 1: Single domain.

acme.sh --issue -d example.com -w /home/wwwroot/example.com

or:

acme.sh --issue -d example.com -w /home/username/public_html

or:

acme.sh --issue -d example.com -w /var/www/html

Example 2: Multiple domains in the same cert.

acme.sh --issue -d example.com -d www.example.com -d cp.example.com -w /home/wwwroot/example.com

The parameter /home/wwwroot/example.com or /home/username/public_html or /var/www/html is the web root folder where you host your website files. You MUST have write access to this folder.

Second argument "example.com" is the main domain you want to issue the cert for. You must have at least one domain there.

You must point and bind all the domains to the same webroot dir: /home/wwwroot/example.com.

The certs will be placed in ~/.acme.sh/example.com/

🔄 The certs will be renewed automatically every 30 days.

🔐 The certs will default to ECC certificates.

📚 More examples: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-issue-a-cert

3️⃣ Install the Certificate to Apache/Nginx

After the cert is generated, you probably want to install/copy the cert to your Apache/Nginx or other servers.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: You MUST use this command to copy the certs to the target files. DO NOT use the certs files in ~/.acme.sh/ folder — they are for internal use only, the folder structure may change in the future.

🪶 Apache Example:

acme.sh --install-cert -d example.com \
--cert-file      /path/to/certfile/in/apache/cert.pem  \
--key-file       /path/to/keyfile/in/apache/key.pem  \
--fullchain-file /path/to/fullchain/certfile/apache/fullchain.pem \
--reloadcmd     "service apache2 force-reload"

⚡ Nginx Example:

acme.sh --install-cert -d example.com \
--key-file       /path/to/keyfile/in/nginx/key.pem  \
--fullchain-file /path/to/fullchain/nginx/cert.pem \
--reloadcmd     "service nginx force-reload"

Only the domain is required, all the other parameters are optional.

The ownership and permission info of existing files are preserved. You can pre-create the files to define the ownership and permission.

Install/copy the cert/key to the production Apache or Nginx path.

🔄 The cert will be renewed every 30 days by default (configurable). Once renewed, the Apache/Nginx service will be reloaded automatically.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: The reloadcmd is very important. The cert can be automatically renewed, but without a correct reloadcmd, the cert may not be flushed to your server (like nginx or apache), then your website will not be able to show the renewed cert.

4️⃣ Use Standalone Server to Issue Certificate

🔐 Requires root/sudoer or permission to listen on port 80 (TCP)

⚠️ Port 80 (TCP) MUST be free to listen on, otherwise you will be pr

acme.sh (acmesh-official/acme.sh)

posix
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47.8K ·GitHub
Acme.sh
What is this?acme.sh is a pure Unix shell script client for the ACME protocol that automatically issues, renews, and installs free SSL/TLS certificates from CAs like Let's Encrypt or ZeroSSL.
Is this a script I run, or a service I need to set up?It is a single shell script installed into your home directory; it adds a shell alias and a daily cron job that handles renewal automatically, there is no server or daemon process to run.
Do I need Python or any other runtime first?No, acme.sh has no dependency on Python and works fine with Bash, dash, or plain sh.
Any install pitfalls I should know about?After installing you must close and reopen your terminal for the acme.sh alias to take effect, and running the built-in standalone webserver mode requires root or permission to bind port 80.
Does it only work on Linux, or also BSD and Windows?It's tested on a very wide range of systems: macOS, Windows via Cygwin, most Linux distros, FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/DragonFlyBSD, OpenWRT, Solaris, and more.
Which Certificate Authorities does it support?ZeroSSL is the default CA, with Let's Encrypt, SSL.com, Google Public CA, Actalis, Pebble, and any RFC8555-compliant CA also supported.
How often are certificates renewed?Certificates are renewed automatically every 30 days by default via the daily cron job created at install time.
Can I verify the authenticity of a release?Yes, release tags from 3.1.5 onward are signed with the maintainer's SSH key, and verifying the signed tag pins and validates the entire commit tree.
Which domain-verification modes are available?Webroot, standalone (HTTP and tls-alpn), Apache, Nginx, DNS TXT, DNS alias, stateless, and DNS-persist modes are all supported for proving domain ownership.
What are similar projects?certbot, azerioid-stack-manager, nginxconfig.io, cert-manager, openvpn, vps-security-enhancement-scripts, mailcow-dockerized, ProxmoxVE
Which topics is it in?ssl-certificate, acme, posix, openbsd, certificate, letsencrypt, openwrt, ssl, apache, nginx, cron, scripting
Creator
acmesh-official
Size
7.7 MB
Stars
47.8K
Updated
CommitOct 16Release3.1.6Sep 20
Age
10y
Commits · 90 Days