muerwre.github.io/content/Linux/Certbot well-known auto renew.md

This is translation of article from clsv.ru, which explains how to automate certbot's well-known, also known as HTTP challenge for wildcard certs renewal.

You'll need 4 scripts:

1. Authentication script, which will write authentication file:

#!/bin/bash
echo $CERTBOT_VALIDATION > /var/www/html/.well-known/$CERTBOT_TOKEN

2. Cleanup script, that will delete that

#!/bin/bash
rm -f /var/www/html/.well-known/$CERTBOT_TOKEN

3. Initial cert acquiring script:

certbot certonly \
  --preferred-challenges=http --manual \
  --manual-auth-hook /path/to/auth.sh \
  --manual-cleanup-hook /oath/to/clean.sh
  -d "yourhost.org,*.yourhost.org" \
  --manual-public-ip-logging-ok

4. Renewal script itself, to put it in crontab (or /etc/cron.weekly)

certbot renew --manual-public-ip-logging-ok \
  --manual-auth-hook /path/to/auth.sh \
  --manual-cleanup-hook /path/to/clean.sh

systemctl reload nginx

Don't forget to configure your http server to serve .well-known.