NAME
acme.sh — A pure Unix shell script ACME client for SSL / TLS certificate automation
SYNOPSIS
INFO
DESCRIPTION
A pure Unix shell script ACME client for SSL / TLS certificate automation
README
🔐 acme.sh
An ACME Protocol Client Written Purely in Shell
✨ Features
- 🐚 An ACME protocol client written purely in Shell (Unix shell) language
- 📜 Full ACME protocol implementation
- 🔑 Support ECDSA certificates
- 🌐 Support SAN and wildcard certificates
- ⚡ Simple, powerful and very easy to use — only 3 minutes to learn!
- 🔧 Compatible with Bash, dash and sh
- 🚫 No dependencies on Python
- 🔄 One script to issue, renew and install your certificates automatically
- 👤 DOES NOT require
root/sudoeraccess - 🐳 Docker ready
- 🌍 IPv6 ready
- 📧 Cron job notifications for renewal or error
💡 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?
- FreeBSD.org
- ruby-china.org
- Proxmox
- pfsense
- Loadbalancer.org
- discourse.org
- Centminmod
- splynx
- opnsense.org
- CentOS Web Panel
- lnmp.org
- more...
🖥️ Tested OS
| NO | Status | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Mac OSX |
| 2 | | Windows (cygwin with curl, openssl and crontab included) |
| 3 | | FreeBSD |
| 4 | | Solaris |
| 5 | | Ubuntu |
| 6 | NA | pfsense |
| 7 | | OpenBSD |
| 8 | | NetBSD |
| 9 | | DragonFlyBSD |
| 10 | | Omnios |
| 11 | | OpenIndiana |
| 12 |  | Debian |
| 13 | | openSUSE |
| 14 | | Alpine Linux (with curl) |
| 15 | | Archlinux |
| 16 | | fedora |
| 17 | | Kali Linux |
| 18 | | Oracle Linux |
| 19 | | Mageia |
| 20 | | Gentoo Linux |
| 21 | ----- | Cloud Linux https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/issues/111 |
| 22 | ----- | OpenWRT: Tested and working. See wiki page |
| 23 |  | Proxmox: See Proxmox VE Wiki. Version 4.x, 5.0, 5.1, version 5.2 and up |
| 24 | | Haiku OS |
🧪 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 |
📖 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=my@example.com
Or:
wget -O - https://get.acme.sh | sh -s email=my@example.com
📦 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 my@example.com
💡 You
don't have to be rootthen, althoughit is recommended.
📚 Advanced Installation: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-install
The installer will perform 3 actions:
- Create and copy
acme.shto your home dir ($HOME):~/.acme.sh/. All certs will be placed in this folder too. - Create alias for:
acme.sh=~/.acme.sh/acme.sh. - 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
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
reloadcmdis very important. The cert can be automatically renewed, but without a correctreloadcmd, 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 prompted to free it and try again.
acme.sh --issue --standalone -d example.com -d www.example.com -d cp.example.com
📚 More examples: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-issue-a-cert
5️⃣ Use Standalone TLS Server to Issue Certificate
🔐 Requires root/sudoer or permission to listen on port 443 (TCP)
⚠️ Port
443(TCP) MUST be free to listen on, otherwise you will be prompted to free it and try again.
acme.sh --issue --alpn -d example.com -d www.example.com -d cp.example.com
📚 More examples: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-issue-a-cert
6️⃣ Use Apache Mode
🔐 Requires root/sudoer to interact with Apache server
If you are running a web server, it is recommended to use the Webroot mode.
Particularly, if you are running an Apache server, you can use Apache mode instead. This mode doesn't write any files to your web root folder.
acme.sh --issue --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com -d cp.example.com
💡 Note: This Apache mode is only to issue the cert, it will not change your Apache config files. You will need to configure your website config files to use the cert by yourself. We don't want to mess with your Apache server, don't worry!
📚 More examples: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-issue-a-cert
7️⃣ Use Nginx Mode
🔐 Requires root/sudoer to interact with Nginx server
If you are running a web server, it is recommended to use the Webroot mode.
Particularly, if you are running an Nginx server, you can use Nginx mode instead. This mode doesn't write any files to your web root folder.
It will configure Nginx server automatically to verify the domain and then restore the Nginx config to the original version. So, the config is not changed.
acme.sh --issue --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com -d cp.example.com
💡 Note: This Nginx mode is only to issue the cert, it will not change your Nginx config files. You will need to configure your website config files to use the cert by yourself. We don't want to mess with your Nginx server, don't worry!
📚 More examples: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-issue-a-cert
8️⃣ Automatic DNS API Integration
If your DNS provider supports API access, we can use that API to automatically issue the certs.
✨ You don't have to do anything manually!
📚 Currently acme.sh supports most DNS providers: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/dnsapi
9️⃣ Use DNS Manual Mode
See: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/dns-manual-mode first.
If your dns provider doesn't support any api access, you can add the txt record by hand.
acme.sh --issue --dns -d example.com -d www.example.com -d cp.example.com
You should get an output like below:
Add the following txt record: Domain:_acme-challenge.example.com Txt value:9ihDbjYfTExAYeDs4DBUeuTo18KBzwvTEjUnSwd32-cAdd the following txt record: Domain:_acme-challenge.www.example.com Txt value:9ihDbjxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please add those txt records to the domains. Waiting for the dns to take effect.
Then just rerun with renew argument:
acme.sh --renew -d example.com
✅ Done!
⚠️ WARNING: This is DNS manual mode — it cannot be renewed automatically. You will have to add a new TXT record to your domain manually when you renew your cert. Please use DNS API mode instead.
🔟 Issue Certificates of Different Key Types (ECC or RSA)
Just set the keylength to a valid, supported value.
Valid values for the keylength parameter:
| Key Length | Description |
|---|---|
ec-256 | prime256v1, "ECDSA P-256" ⭐ Default |
ec-384 | secp384r1, "ECDSA P-384" |
ec-521 | secp521r1, "ECDSA P-521" ⚠️ Not supported by Let's Encrypt yet |
2048 | RSA 2048-bit |
3072 | RSA 3072-bit |
4096 | RSA 4096-bit |
Examples:
Single domain with ECDSA P-384 certificate
acme.sh --issue -w /home/wwwroot/example.com -d example.com --keylength ec-384
SAN multi domain with RSA4096 certificate
acme.sh --issue -w /home/wwwroot/example.com -d example.com -d www.example.com --keylength 4096
1️⃣1️⃣ Issue Wildcard Certificates
It's simple! Just give a wildcard domain as the -d parameter:
acme.sh --issue -d example.com -d '*.example.com' --dns dns_cf
1️⃣2️⃣ How to Renew Certificates
🔄 No need to renew manually! All certs will be renewed automatically every 30 days.
However, you can force a renewal:
acme.sh --renew -d example.com --force
For ECC cert:
acme.sh --renew -d example.com --force --ecc
1️⃣3️⃣ How to Stop Certificate Renewal
To stop renewal of a cert, you can execute the following to remove the cert from the renewal list:
acme.sh --remove -d example.com [--ecc]
The cert/key file is not removed from the disk.
💡 You can remove the respective directory (e.g.
~/.acme.sh/example.com) manually.
1️⃣4️⃣ How to Upgrade acme.sh
🚀 acme.sh is in constant development — it's strongly recommended to use the latest code.
Update to latest:
acme.sh --upgrade
Enable auto upgrade:
acme.sh --upgrade --auto-upgrade
Disable auto upgrade:
acme.sh --upgrade --auto-upgrade 0
1️⃣5️⃣ Issue a Certificate from an Existing CSR
📚 https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/Issue-a-cert-from-existing-CSR
1️⃣6️⃣ Send Notifications in Cronjob
📚 https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/notify
1️⃣7️⃣ Under the Hood
🔧 Speak ACME language using shell, directly to "Let's Encrypt".
1️⃣8️⃣ Acknowledgments
| Project | Link |
|---|---|
| 🙏 Acme-tiny | https://github.com/diafygi/acme-tiny |
| 📜 ACME protocol | https://github.com/ietf-wg-acme/acme |
👥 Contributors
💻 Code Contributors
This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.
💰 Financial Contributors
Become a financial contributor and help us sustain our community. [Contribute]
👤 Individuals
🏢 Organizations
Support this project with your organization. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Contribute]
1️⃣9️⃣ License & Others
📄 License: GPLv3
⭐ Please Star and Fork this project!
🐛 Issues and 🔀 Pull Requests are welcome.
2️⃣0️⃣ Donate
💝 Your donation makes acme.sh better!
| Method | Link |
|---|---|
| PayPal / Alipay(支付宝) / Wechat(微信) | https://donate.acme.sh/ |
2️⃣1️⃣ About This Repository
[!NOTE] This repository is officially maintained by ZeroSSL as part of our commitment to providing secure and reliable SSL/TLS solutions. We welcome contributions and feedback from the community!
For more information about our services, including free and paid SSL/TLS certificates, visit https://zerossl.com.All donations made through this repository go directly to the original independent maintainer (Neil Pang), not to ZeroSSL.
