# Demo Certificates

This directory contains certificates used by the clients and servers in our
sample programs. These certificates are for testing purposes only and should
**never** be used in a production environment.

As provided, the server certificates use `127.0.0.1` for the Common Name,  the
IP address and DNS name. This works fine when you run the client and server on
the same host. However, if you want to run them on separate hosts, you may need
to regenerate the certificates. (This is especially true for the JavaScript
examples.)

We've included the Python script `makedemocerts.py` to simplify this task.

## Prerequisites

You'll need Python to run the script. The script also depends on a utility
package from a separate [ZeroC repository][1]. You can install this package as
follows:

```
pip install zeroc-icecertutils
```

## Usage

Running the script with `-h` displays the following usage information:

```
Usage: certs/makedemocerts.py [options]

Options:
-h               Show this message.
-d | --debug     Debugging output.
--ip <ip>        The IP address for the server certificate.
--dns <dns>      The DNS name for the server certificate.
--use-dns        Use the DNS name for the server certificate common
                 name (default is to use the IP address).
```

The `--ip`, `--dns`, and `--use-dns` options affect the generation of the server
certificate. Without any arguments, the script prompts for the value of the IP
address and DNS name.

You can specify an alternate IP address using `--ip` and an alternate DNS name
using `--dns`. The `--use-dns` flag forces the script to use the DNS name as
the server's Common Name instead of the IP address.

[1]: https://github.com/zeroc-ice/icecertutils