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Installing Tunnelblick
Uninstalling Tunnelblick
Setting up Configurations
Using Tunnelblick
Getting VPN Service
Common Problems
Configuring OpenVPN
Release Notes
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On This Page
The Tunnelblick Application
OpenVPN, Drivers, and Standard Scripts
Log Files
Key and Certificate Files
Configuration Files
Custom Scripts
LaunchDaemons
Preferences
One More Thing

The Tunnelblick Application

The Tunnelblick application, Tunnelblick.app, must be stored directly in /Applications on the startup volume for security reasons. Thus it cannot be used from network drives or internal or external drives including thumb or flash drives, CD/DVD drives, etc. unless they are being used as the startup volume. Running Tunnelblick from from anywhere except /Applications on the startup volume will result in an offer to install Tunnelblick in /Applications on the startup volume.

OpenVPN, Drivers, and Standard Scripts

The OpenVPN program, openvpn-down-root.so, the 'tun' and 'tap' kext driver files, and standard client up/down scripts are included with, and contained within, Tunnelblick.app.

Log Files

Log files are stored in /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Logs. (Early versions of Tunnelblick stored them in /tmp/tunnelblick). The log files for a configuration are created or deleted and recreated each time the connection is made. There are two log files for each configuration, an OpenVPN log file and a scripts log file. The contents of the files are merged in the display in Tunnelblick's 'VPN Details' window.

Key and Certificate Files

These may be stored anywhere, but typically they are stored in the same folder as the configuration (.ovpn or .conf) file. Key and certificate files associated with a Tunnelblick VPN Configuration (.tblk) are stored inside the configuration itself.

Key and certificate files usually have an extension of .cer, .crt, .der, .key, .p12, .p7b, .p7c, .pem, or .pfx.

Configuration Files

There are two types of configuration files:

• Tunnelblick VPN Connection files (.tblk files), which include within them one OpenVPN configuration file and all key, certificate, and script files used by the configuration; and

• OpenVPN configuration files (.ovpn and .conf files). Keys, certificates, and scripts associated with a configuration file are often stored as separate files, but may be included within the configuration file itself.

Note: Configurations should always be installed by dropping them on the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar. If you just move or copy them they may not work properly.

There are five places configuration files may be stored:

• Private configurations, including both types of files, are stored in '~/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations'. Since these files are all located in the user's Library folder, they must be set up separately for each user. (Note that the '~' in the path indicates the user's home folder; thus the folder is actually located somewhere such as /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations. Do not confuse this Library folder with the /Library folder located at the root of the filesystem.)

• Shared configurations, which can only be Tunnelblick VPN Connection files, are stored in /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Shared. Shared configurations do not need to be set up for each user. (In fact, that's the whole point of sharing them!)

• Deployed configurations, including both types of files, are stored within the Contents/Resources folder of Tunnelblick.app itself. They do not need to be set up for each user, and are accessible to all users of the computer with access to the application. (To access the internal contents of Tunnelblick.app in the Finder, Control-click Tunnelblick.app in the Applications folder and click 'Show Package Contents”.)

• 'Shadow' copies of configuration files (if they exist) are located in /Library/Application Support Tunnelblick/Users/username. See 'useShadowConfigurationFiles' in Preferences for details. Shadow copies are created and maintained by Tunnelblick.

• Backup copies of Deployed configurations are stored in subfolders of /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Backup. These configurations will be restored if a version of Tunnelblick which is not a Deployed version is installed, making it into a Deployed version.

Note: Prior to Tunnelblick version 3.0b24, private configuration files were stored in ~/Library/openvpn. Version 3.0b24 and later versions automatically move that folder to its new location, and replace it with a symbolic link to the new location.

Custom Scripts

There are two types of custom scripts that can be run at certain points in the connect/disconnect process:

• Scripts supported by OpenVPN: Scripts referred to in the OpenVPN configuration file may be included in a Tunnelblick VPN configuration; use filenames without any path information to refer to them in the OpenVPN configuration file.

• Scripts supported by Tunnelblick: Tunnelblick VPN Configurations ('.tblk's) can contain custom scripts that will be run automatically at other points in the connect/disconnect process.

These scripts should be located in a Tunnelblick VPN Configurations without any folder structure, and references to them should not contain any path information.

For more information, see Using Scripts.

LaunchDaemons

Durring installation, Tunnelblick sets up a 'daemon' to perform privileged operations such as starting OpenVPN as root. The daemon has a .plist file named net.tunnelblick.tunnelblick.tunnelblickd.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons.

If a configuration is set to connect when the computer starts, it has a .plist file located in /Library/LaunchDaemons. These .plist files are all named starting with 'net.tunnelblick.startup.'

Preferences

A user's Tunnelblick preferences are contained in ~/Library/Preferences/net.tunnelblick.tunnelblick.plist.

Note: In Tunnelblick 3.2beta10 and earlier, preferences are stored in ~/Library/Preferences/com.openvpn.tunnelblick.plist.

Deployed versions of Tunnelblick may contain a 'forced-preferences.plist' file within the Tunnelblick application itself. They are used to override the user's normal preferences; see Deploying Tunnelblick for details.

Tunnelblick VPN Configurations may also include preference defaults, which are used to initialize the user's preferences (which may then be changed by the user).

One More Thing

Under certain circumstances, Tunnelblick replaces the configuration folder that very old versions of Tunnelblick use,
~/Library/openvpn
with a symbolic link to the new location of the folder,
~/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations

Tunnelblick helps you control OpenVPN® VPNs on macOS. It is Free Software that puts its users first. There are no ads, no affiliate marketers, no tracking — we don't even keep logs of your IP address or other information. We just supply open technology for fast, easy, private, and secure control of VPNs.

Tunnelblick comes as a ready-to-use application with all necessary binaries and drivers (including OpenVPN, easy-rsa, and tun/tap drivers). No additional installation is necessary — just add your OpenVPN configuration and encryption information.

To use Tunnelblick you need access to a VPN server: your computer is one end of the tunnel and the VPN server is the other end. For more information, see Getting VPN Service.

Tunnelblick is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 and may be distributed only in accordance with the terms of that license.

OpenVPN is a registered trademark of OpenVPN Inc.