Exporting and Importing Tunnelblick Setups

Tunnelblick maintains private configurations for each user on a computer and shared configurations that are accessible to all of the users.

It also maintains per-user and shared settings that control its behavior and the behavior of both types of configurations.

You can export and import these configurations and settings as a backup or for transfer to another computer. For security reasons, you cannot export usernames, passwords, or passphrases stored by Tunnelblick in the Keychain.

Exporting

Export all configurations and settings on a computer by clicking the "Export Tunnelblick Setup" on the "Utilities" panel of Tunnelblick's "VPN Details" window.

Important: Saved usernames and passwords are not exported.

Tunnelblick will create a compressed ".tar.gz" file on your Desktop named "Tunnelblick Setup" followed by the date and time. The file can be expanded into a Tunnelblick Setup file (with ".tar.gz" changed to ".tblkSetup") by double-clicking it. (A compressed file is created because it is much smaller than the uncompressed version.)

Importing

Import selected configurations and settings from a ".tblkSetup" file by dragging and dropping it onto the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar. (Note that you cannot drag/drop a comporessed file – you must expand it first by double-clicking it. Then you can drag/drop the expanded version.)

Tunnelblick will then display a window that allows you to choose which users' data should be imported and to to which users to import that data. (Shared configurations and settings are always imported.) Here's an example:

For each of the usernames in the left column, select "Do not import" or a username, then click "OK" to do the import.

Notes:

1. Shared configurations and the settings for them are always imported.
2. Configurations and shared settings are imported immediately, but each user's settings are not imported until the next time that user launches Tunnelblick.
3. Saved usernames and passwords are not imported.
4. If there are more than 64 users on the computer, the import will not be done unless a "username-map.txt" file is included in the .tblkSetup. See below for details.
5. Imports are done in the order in which they appear in the window.
6. Importing a configuration overwrites any existing configuration with the same name.

A consequence of the last two points is that if you import data from two users to one user and all three users have configurations with the same name, any existing configuration that the "target" user has will be overwritten by the last "source" user's configuration. (Technically, it will first be overwritten by the first "source" user's configuration, and then that will be overwritten by the second "source" user's copy.)

Import Setup Name Mapping

When importing data from a .tblkSetup (generated by Tunnelblick's "Export Tunnelblick Setup" Utility command), Tunnelblick will usually let you interactively choose which users' data to import and to what user the data should be imported. However, when the computer has more than 64 users, you must create a file to instruct Tunnelblick how to import the data. Such a file may also be used to copy the import data from one user to multiple users on the import computer at one time.

The file must be a "plain text" (UTF-8) file named "username-map.txt", and must be located inside of the .tblkSetup at the outermost level. (To see the inside of a .tblkSetup, Control-click on it and click on "Show Package Contents".)

The file should consist of one line for each user in the import data whose data you wish to import. Each line should have the import data username, a colon, and the name of a user on the computer on which the import is being performed. For example,

        liam   : liam
        liam   : noah

        emma   : william
        olivia : william

The configurations and settings for user "liam" on the exporting computer will be imported to user "liam" and to user "noah" on the importing computer. The configurations and settings for users "emma" and "olivia" on the exporting computer will be imported to user "william" on the importing computer.

Notes:

1. The usernames are the users' "short" usernames and cannot contain spaces.
2. Spaces and tabs around names are ignored.
3. Configurations are imported immediately, but a user's settings are not imported until the next time that user launches Tunnelblick.
4. Imports to a user are done in the order in which they appear in the file.
5. Importing a configuration overwrites any existing configuration with the same name.

A consequence of the last two points is that if emma and olivia both have a configuration named "office", any existing configuration that william has which is named "office" will be overwritten by olivia's copy. (Technically, it will first be overwritten by emma's copy, and then that will be overwritten by olivia's copy.)