BOLTCTL

Section: bolt Manual (1)
Updated: 01/26/2021
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NAME

boltctl - control the thunderbolt device manager

SYNOPSIS

boltctl authorize DEVICE
boltctl config
boltctl domains
boltctl enroll DEVICE
boltctl forget DEVICE
boltctl info DEVICE
boltctl list
boltctl monitor
boltctl power

DESCRIPTION

boltctl is the command line interface to interact with boltd, the system daemon that manages Thunderbolt 3(TM) devices. It can be used to query the state of devices as well as manage them.

Devices can be globally identified via their unique identifier (uuid). All commands that take a DEVICE identifier expect this unique id.

If no command is given, it is equivalent to boltctl list.

OPTIONS

--version

: Print version information and exit.

-U | --uuid {full | short | alias | N}

Control how UUIDs are printed. Since they are somewhat sensitive data it is not advisable to share them publicly in full length. Instead short or alias can and should be used when sharing the output of boltctl.

full

: Print all UUIDs in full length.

short

: Truncate all UUIDs so only the first 13 characters are printed.

alias

: All UUIDs are replaced by a random string that is derived from the UUID, therefore the devices can be uniquely identified without revealing the original UUID.

: If a integer N is specified, all UUIDs are truncated to only show up to N.

COMMANDS

authorize [-F | --first-time] DEVICE

Authorize a currently unauthorized device identified via its unique id (uuid) DEVICE. If a key is stored in the database it will be used, given the security level of the domain supports secure device connection. Use boltctl list to find out the uuid of a device.

-F | --first-time

: Normally, when attempting to authorize an already authorized device boltctl will do nothing and return a successful status code. When using this option, the attempt will fail and result in a negative exit code if the device is already authorized.

config --describe [global|domain|device]

List global, domain, or all (if nothing is specified) properties. The format is 3 columns: permission, name, description. Permission indicates if the property is only readable or can also be written.

config KEY [VALUE]

Get or set, if VALUE is specified, a global property.

config <domain|device>.KEY TARGET [VALUE]

Get or set, if VALUE is specified, a domain or device property, where TARGET is the unique id of the domain or the device.

domains [-v | --verbose]

List all currently active Thunderbolt domains. A Thunderbolt domain represents the Thunderbolt controller hardware. There will be one domain (and host device) for each Thunderbolt controller present in the system. The security property shows the security level of the controller. If iommu support is active (see the boltd man page) it will be indicated by a +iommu suffix for "secure" or "user" mode, or just plain iommu in case the security level is "none" (sl0). bootacl shows the used and total slots of the boot access control list (BootACL) and the content of all non-empty entries. NB: if BootACL is unsupported it will show 0 for both (0/0). The online property shows if the thunderbolt controller is currently powered by the firmware. NB: if the controller is currently offline the BootACL list will reflect what boltd estimates the list will look like once the controller is back online and local changes have been synchronized to the controller. This might not be accurate if the list was modified in the meantime, e.g. from a different installation or OS.

enroll [--policy policy] DEVICE

Authorize and record the device with the unique id DEVICE in the database. If the domain supports secure connection a new key will be generated and stored in the database alongside the device name and vendor name. The key, if created, will be used in the future to securely authorize the device.

--policy {default | auto | manual}

Specify the policy to be used for the newly enrolled device.

default

: Use the global default policy of the daemon; this can be changed, but is normally also auto.

auto

: Automatically authorize this device whenever it is connected.

manual

: Do not automatically authorize the device; instead require manual authorization via boltctl authorize.

forget DEVICE

Remove the information about the device with the unique id DEVICE from the database. This includes the key, if one was previously generated. If you pass --all instead of the DEVICE all devices are removed instead of just one.

info DEVICE

Display information about the device with the unique id DEVICE.

list [-a | --all]

List and print information about all connected and stored devices.

-a | --all

: Normally, the only the device type that will be shown is peripherals. Therefore the device that represents the host itself will be omitted. Using this option will instead include all device types in the list.

monitor

Listen for and show changes in connected devices.

power [-t | --timeout seconds] [-q | --query]

Power up the Thunderbolt controller. If the Thunderbolt controller is not in "native enumeration mode" it can be completely powered down by the host firmware/BIOS. On supported systems there is an interface to "force" power the thunderbolt controller. If supported this command will request the daemon to do so. The daemon will keep track of all client requests and will release the force power override when the last request is released.

-t | --timeout seconds

: Release the force power request after the specified amount of seconds and exit.

-q | --query

: Query the current force power status of the daemon.

AUTHOR

Written by Christian Kellner <ckellner@redhat.com>.