Feature request (Tunnelblick MAC OSX): Group VPN configurations

[alexp...@gmail.com]

Hi,

When you have to configure multiple VPN configurations (for job, personal, etc...) it would be great to been able to group VPN's in order to organize them better and quickly access to the desired VPN.

Best Regards,

Alessandro

[Tunnelblick developer]

Tunnelblick can do that already, although it requires a bit of manual labor before installing the configurations and there is no way to manipulate the groups within Tunnelblick itself afterwards.

To do this, create a structure of directories and configurations, enclose the structure in a .tblk, and install that (single) .tblk. That will create a group of configurations for the configurations in each folder. The directories can be nested to an arbitrary depth.

Example

Suppose you have configurations named A1.tblk, A2.tblk, A3.tblk... B1.tblk, B2.tblk, B3.tblk... and you want to divide them into two groups, A and B.

First, use Finder to create a structure of files and folders: an outer folder named "OuterFolder" containing an inner folder "A" which contains the A1, A2, A3... configurations, and an inner folder "B" folder which contains the B1, B2, B3... configurations. Make it like this:

OuterFolder/

A/

1.tblk

2.tblk

3.tblk

...

B/

1.tblk

2.tblk

3.tblk

...

(Note that the configurations have been renamed to remove the "A" or "B", because they are inside folder "A" or "B", respectively. That isn't necessary, but it avoids repetition of the "A" when configurations are displayed in Tunnelblick.)

Then

1. Rename "OuterFolder" to be "OuterFolder.tblk"
   
   
2. Drag/drop OuterFolder.tblk to the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar.
   

Finally, use the "Display Connection Submenus" checkbox on Tunnelblick's "Appearance" panel to adjust the way that Tunnelblick displays the configurations in the Tunnelblick menu. (They are always shown hierarchically in the list of configurations on the "Configurations" panel.)

Notes:

1. You probably will want to delete all of your existing configurations before adding the new ones (or after adding them, if you prefer). Select multiple configurations at one time using standard macOS keystrokes (Command-A to select all, Command-Click to add/remove items, Shift-Click to select a range), then click the "-" button below the list of configurations. That way you only have to enter your computer admin password once, instead of entering it for each configuration that you want to delete.
   
   
2. You can create the directory structure however you want; you don't need to use Finder. Most VPN service providers use scripts to create a folder structure.
   
   
3. You don't have to use .tblks for the configurations (except for OuterFolder.tblk) -- you can use "bare" .ovpn or .conf files if they contain all the information needed for the configuration.
   
   
4. The name of the "OuterFolder.tblk" can be anything as long as it has an extension of .tblk. The name itself will not appear anywhere.
   
   
5. "Directories" and "Folders" are interchangeable terms; sorry I wasn't consistent : )