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Address Books
Address books are the peer lists RustDesk clients sync. CortenDesk implements both the modern multi-address-book API and the legacy single-book API, so old and current clients both work against the same data.
Every user gets a personal book automatically. It is theirs, it is not shared, and it cannot be shared.
Deleting a user deletes their personal book. A personal book left behind by a user deleted before 1.0.2 shows an Orphaned badge, and an administrator can delete it.
Shared books are created in the console and handed out with share rules. Use them for the peer lists a team works from.
Each shared book carries its own rules. A rule grants one subject one permission:
Subjects
- Everyone
- A specific user
- A user group
Permissions
| Permission | Holder may |
|---|---|
| Read | See the book and its entries |
| Read/write | Also add, edit and remove entries |
| Full control | Also manage the book itself, including its rules |
Rules are per book, so one book can be readable by everyone and writable by one team. They apply on top of the role's Address books area — a role granting Manage does not bypass a book's own rules.
An entry is a peer: its RustDesk ID, an alias, tags and a note. Entries are what the client actually sees in its address book pane.
Entries come from four places:
- By hand — the entry editor on this screen.
- Synced by clients — clients with write access push peers, along with the peer's hostname and platform.
- In bulk from the Devices screen (since 1.1.0) — select devices and choose Add to Address Book…. Each entry carries the device's alias, hostname, platform and user, devices already present in the chosen book are skipped, and the target list honours the book's share rules — you only see books you can write to. See bulk actions.
- From the device page (since 1.10.0): add one device to a book or remove it, limited to books you can write to.
Deleting a device can also remove its entries from the books you can edit; see Deleting a device.
Creating, renaming and deleting books, adding and removing tags, adding, editing and removing entries, and changing share rules are all written to the console audit log, with the book's name. Before 1.10.0 the Address Books screen did not record entry, tag or rename changes.
Tags are per book and carry a colour. Clients can filter by them. They are the practical way to organise a large shared book without splitting it up.
A client syncing against CortenDesk receives the user's personal book plus every shared book they hold a rule for, with the permission that rule grants. A read-only book is read-only in the client too.
Address book contents are independent of device access scoping — a peer can be in an address book without the user having console visibility of that device as a managed machine.
- Users and access scoping
- Roles and delegated administration
- Automation API — books, entries, tags and rules are all scriptable