Obtain temporary files manually (not via webroot)

[harry1]

What is the certbot command for obtaining the temporary file manually?

(eg not via webroot)

[harry1]

@harry1

certbot command for obtaining the temporary file manually

Its sudo certbot certonly --manual -d mydomain

[rg305]

What do you consider "temporary files"?

[harry1]

The one that is placed inside the acme-challenge directory

[griffin]

Welcome Back to the Let's Encrypt Community

sudo certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges http -d "domain.com,www.domain.com"

[rg305]

I concur with @griffin; that command will walk you through the process.
But be aware that certificates that are generated using --manual authentication can't be renewed automatically.
[that means, from then on every (less than) 90 days you will need to renew the cert manually]

[griffin]

I concur @rg305.

@harry1

If you happen to be running certbot on a separate machine then uploading the challenge files to your webserver because you don't have root access to install certbot on your webserver, I have a much easier solution for you. Assuming that your webserver supports PHP, you could just use CertSage (my ACME client) instead of certbot. You just copy certsage.php to your webroot directory on your webserver, navigate to it with your favorite web browser, type in your domain names, enter an email address to receive expiration notifications, and click a button. In under a minute you'll have your certificate. Much easier (and more secure) than messing with a manual approach. Works especially great if your website uses shared hosting with cPanel.