greenlock.js/MIGRATION_GUIDE_V2_V3.md

Migrating from Greenlock v2 to v3

Greenlock Express uses Greenlock directly, the same as before.

All options described for Greenlock.create({...}) also apply to the Greenlock Express init() callback.

Overview of Major Differences

• Reduced API
• No code in the config
  • (config is completely serializable)
• Manager callbacks replace approveDomains
• Greenlock Express does more, with less config
  • cluster is supported out-of-the-box
  • high-performance
  • scalable
• ACME challenges are simplified
  • init
  • zones (dns-01)
  • set
  • get
  • remove
• Store callbacks are simplified
  • accounts
    • checkKeypairs
  • certificates
    • checkKeypairs
    • check
    • set

Greenlock JavaScript API greatly reduced

Whereas before there were many different methods with nuance differences, now there's just create, get, renew, and sometimes add ().

• Greenlock.create({ maintainerEmail, packageAgent, notify })
• Greenlock.get({ servername, wildname, duplicate, force })
  • (just a convenience wrapper around renew)
• Greenlock.renew({ subject, altnames, issuedBefore, expiresAfter })
  • (retrieves, issues, renews, all-in-one)
• optional Greenlock.add({ subject, altnames, subscriberEmail })
  • (partially replaces approveDomains)

Also, some disambiguation on terms:

• domains was often ambiguous and confusing, it has been replaced by:
  • subject refers to the subject of a certificate - the primary domain
  • altnames refers to the domains in the SAN (Subject Alternative Names) section of the certificate
  • servername refers to the TLS (SSL) SNI (Server Name Indication) request for a cetificate
  • wildname refers to the wildcard version of the servername (ex: www.example.com => *.example.com)

When you create an instance of Greenlock, you only supply package and maintainer info.

All other configuration is A) optional and B) handled by the Manager.

'use strict';

var pkg = require('./package.json');

var Greenlock = require('greenlock');
var greenlock = Greenlock.create({
    // used for the ACME client User-Agent string as per RFC 8555 and RFC 7231
    packageAgent: pkg.name + '/' + pkg.version,

    // used as the contact for critical bug and security notices
    // should be the same as pkg.author.email
    maintainerEmail: 'jon@example.com',

    // used for logging background events and errors
    notify: function(ev, args) {
        if ('error' === ev || 'warning' === ev) {
            console.error(ev, args);
            return;
        }
        console.info(ev, args);
    }
});

By default no certificates will be issued. See the manager section.

When you want to get a single certificate, you use get, which will:

• will return null if neither the servername or its wildname (wildcard) variant can be found
• retrieve a non-expired certificate, if possible
• will renew the certificate in the background, if stale
• will wait for the certificate to be issued if new

greenlock
    .get({ servername: 'www.example.com' })
    .then(function(result) {
        if (!result) {
            // certificate is not on the approved list
            return null;
        }

        var fullchain = result.pems.cert + '\n' + result.pems.chain + '\n';
        var privkey = result.pems.privkey;

        return {
            fullchain: fullchain,
            privkey: privkey
        };
    })
    .catch(function(e) {
        // something went wrong in the renew process
        console.error(e);
    });

By default no certificates will be issued. See the manager section.

When you want to renew certificates, en masse, you use renew, which will:

• check all certificates matching the given criteria
• only renew stale certificates by default
• return error objects (will NOT throw exception for failed renewals)

greenlock
    .renew({})
    .then(function(results) {
        if (!result.length) {
            // no certificates found
            return null;
        }

        // [{ site, error }]
        return results;
    })
    .catch(function(e) {
        // an unexpected error, not related to renewal
        console.error(e);
    });

Options:

Option	Description
altnames	only check and renew certs matching these altnames (including wildcards)
renewBefore	only check and renew certs marked for renewal before the given date, in ms
duplicate	renew certificates regardless of timing
force	allow silly things, like tiny renewOffsets

By default no certificates will be issued. See the manager section.

Greenlock Express Example

The options that must be returned from init() are the same that are used in Greenlock.create(), with a few extra that are specific to Greenlock Express:

require('@root/greenlock-express')
    .init(function() {
        // This object will be passed to Greenlock.create()

        var options = {
            // some options, like cluster, are special to Greenlock Express

            cluster: false,

            // The rest are the same as for Greenlock

            packageAgent: pkg.name + '/' + pkg.version,
            maintainerEmail: 'jon@example.com',
            notify: function(ev, args) {
                console.info(ev, args);
            }
        };

        return options;
    })
    .serve(function(glx) {
        // will start servers on port 80 and 443

        glx.serveApp(function(req, res) {
            res.end('Hello, Encrypted World!');
        });

        // you can get access to the raw server (i.e. for websockets)

        glx.httpsServer(); // returns raw server object
    });

Manager replaces approveDomains

approveDomains was always a little confusing. Most people didn't need it.

Instead, now there is a simple config file that will work for most people, as well as a set of callbacks for easy configurability.

Default Manager

The default manager is greenlock-manager-fs and the default configFile is ~/.config/greenlock/manager.json.

The config file should look something like this:

~/.config/greenlock/manager.json:

{
    "subscriberEmail": "jon@example.com",
    "agreeToTerms": true,
    "sites": {
        "example.com": {
            "subject": "example.com",
            "altnames": ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
        }
    }
}

You can specify a acme-dns-01-* or acme-http-01-* challenge plugin globally, or per-site.

{
    "subscriberEmail": "jon@example.com",
    "agreeToTerms": true,
    "sites": {
        "example.com": {
            "subject": "example.com",
            "altnames": ["example.com", "www.example.com"],
            "challenges": {
                "dns-01": {
                    "module": "acme-dns-01-digitalocean",
                    "token": "apikey-xxxxx"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The same is true with greenlock-store-* plugins:

{
    "subscriberEmail": "jon@example.com",
    "agreeToTerms": true,
    "sites": {
        "example.com": {
            "subject": "example.com",
            "altnames": ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
        }
    },
    "store": {
        "module": "greenlock-store-fs",
        "basePath": "~/.config/greenlock"
    }
}

Customer Manager, the lazy way

At the very least you have to implement find({ servername }).

Since this is a very common use case, it's supported out of the box as part of the default manager plugin:

var greenlock = Greenlock.create({
    packageAgent: pkg.name + '/' + pkg.version,
    maintainerEmail: 'jon@example.com',
    notify: notify,
    find: find
});

// In the simplest case you can ignore all incoming options
// and return a single site config in the same format as the config file

function find(options) {
    var servername = options.servername; // www.example.com
    var wildname = options.wildname; // *.example.com
    return Promise.resolve([
        { subject: 'example.com', altnames: ['example.com', 'www.example.com'] }
    ]);
}

function notify(ev, args) {
    if ('error' === ev || 'warning' === ev) {
        console.error(ev, args);
        return;
    }
    console.info(ev, args);
}

If you want to use wildcards or local domains, you must specify the dns-01 challenge plugin to use:

function find(options) {
    var subject = options.subject;
    // may include wildcard
    var altnames = options.altnames;
    var wildname = options.wildname; // *.example.com
    return Promise.resolve([
        {
            subject: 'example.com',
            altnames: ['example.com', 'www.example.com'],
            challenges: {
                'dns-01': { module: 'acme-dns-01-namedotcom', apikey: 'xxxx' }
            }
        }
    ]);
}

Customer Manager, complete

To use a fully custom manager, you give the npm package name, or absolute path to the file to load

Greenlock.create({
    // Greenlock Options
    maintainerEmail: 'jon@example.com',
    packageAgent: 'my-package/v2.1.1',
    notify: notify,

    // file path or npm package name
    manager: '/path/to/manager.js',
    // options that get passed to the manager
    myFooOption: 'whatever'
});

The manager itself is, again relatively simple:

• find(options)
• set(siteConfig)
• remove(options)
• defaults(globalOptions) (as setter)
  • defaults() => globalOptions (as getter)

/path/to/manager.js:

'use strict';

module.exports.create = function() {
    var manager = {};

    manager.find = async function({ subject, altnames, renewBefore }) {
        if (subject) {
            return getSiteConfigBySubject(subject);
        }

        if (altnames) {
            // may include wildcards
            return getSiteConfigByAnyAltname(altnames);
        }

        if (renewBefore) {
            return getSiteConfigsWhereRenewAtIsLessThan(renewBefore);
        }

        return [];
    };

    manage.set = function(opts) {
        // this is called by greenlock.add({ subject, altnames })
        // it's also called by greenlock._update({ subject, renewAt })

        return mergSiteConfig(subject, opts);
    };

    manage.remove = function({ subject, altname }) {
        if (subject) {
            return removeSiteConfig(subject);
        }

        return removeFromSiteConfigAndResetRenewAtToZero(altname);
    };

    // set the global config
    manage.defaults = function(options) {
        if (!options) {
            return getGlobalConfig();
        }
        return mergeGlobalConfig(options);
    };
};

ACME Challenge Plugins

The ACME challenge plugins are just a few simple callbacks:

• init
• zones (dns-01 only)
• set
• get
• remove

They are described here:

• dns-01 documentation
• http-01 documentation

Key and Cert Store Plugins

Again, these are just a few simple callbacks:

• certificates.checkKeypair
• certificates.check
• certificates.setKeypair
• certificates.set
• accounts.checkKeypair
• accounts.check (optional)
• accounts.setKeypair
• accounts.set (optional)

The name check is used instead of get because they only need to return something if it exists. They do not need to fail, nor do they need to generate anything.

They are described here:

• greenlock store documentation

If you are just implenting in-house and are not going to publish a module, you can also do some hack things like this:

Custome Store, The hacky / lazy way

/path/to/project/my-hacky-store.js:

'use strict';

module.exports.create = function(options) {
    // ex: /path/to/account.ecdsa.jwk.json
    var accountJwk = require(options.accountJwkPath);
    // ex: /path/to/privkey.rsa.pem
    var serverPem = fs.readFileSync(options.serverPemPath, 'ascii');
    var accounts = {};
    var certificates = {};
    var store = { accounts, certificates };

    // bare essential account callbacks
    accounts.checkKeypair = function() {
        // ignore all options and just return a single, global keypair

        return Promise.resolve({
            privateKeyJwk: accountJwk
        });
    };
    accounts.setKeypair = function() {
        // this will never get called if checkKeypair always returns

        return Promise.resolve({});
    };

    // bare essential cert and key callbacks
    certificates.checkKeypair = function() {
        // ignore all options and just return a global server keypair

        return {
            privateKeyPem: serverPem
        };
    };
    certificates.setKeypair = function() {
        // never gets called if checkKeypair always returns an existing key

        return Promise.resolve(null);
    };

    certificates.check = function(args) {
        var subject = args.subject;
        // make a database call or whatever to get a certificate
        return goGetCertBySubject(subject).then(function() {
            return {
                pems: {
                    chain: '<PEM>',
                    cert: '<PEM>'
                }
            };
        });
    };
    certificates.set = function(args) {
        var subject = args.subject;
        var cert = args.pems.cert;
        var chain = args.pems.chain;

        // make a database call or whatever to get a certificate
        return goSaveCert({
            subject,
            cert,
            chain
        });
    };
};

Using the hacky / lazy store plugin

That sort of implementation won't pass the test suite, but it'll work just fine a use case where you only have one subscriber email (most of the time), you only have one server key (not recommended, but works), and you only really want to worry about storing cetificates.

Then you could assign it as the default for all of your sites:

{
    "subscriberEmail": "jon@example.com",
    "agreeToTerms": true,
    "sites": {
        "example.com": {
            "subject": "example.com",
            "altnames": ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
        }
    },
    "store": {
        "module": "/path/to/project/my-hacky-store.js",
        "accountJwkPath": "/path/to/account.ecdsa.jwk.json",
        "serverPemPath": "/path/to/privkey.rsa.pem"
    }
}