Command Line Utilities - Revision history

DDvO: /* Commands */ remove pretty useless reference to Standard commands and non-existing ones to other types of commands

2022-06-24T11:56:05Z

Commands: remove pretty useless reference to Standard commands and non-existing ones to other types of commands

2022-06-24T11:52:12Z

Move the Commands section just after the other more general sections

2022-06-24T11:43:14Z

Minor improvements regarding the list of standard commands

2022-06-24T09:43:43Z

Update the more general sections to OpenSSL 3.0.4

2020-09-15T16:14:58Z

Re-added information about the limitations of base64 encoding, as discussed in the talk page.

2019-07-30T21:11:58Z

Added section on 1-step ecc key generation, as per Matt's suggestion on the discussion page

2019-07-30T04:40:56Z

Corrected spelling of the prime command

2019-07-30T03:35:14Z

Pretty significant rewrite, details in discussion

2015-05-22T12:37:46Z

fmt fix

2015-04-03T07:38:11Z

DER PEM conversion

@@ Line 126: / Line 126: @@
 =Commands=
-There are three different kinds of commands. These are [[Standard commands|standard commands]], [[Cipher commands|cipher commands]], and [[Digest comands|digest commands]]. Calling the OpenSSL top-level <tt>help</tt> command with no arguments will result in openssl printing all available commands by group, sorted alphabetically.
+There are three different kinds of commands. These are standard commands, cipher commands, and message digest commands. Calling the OpenSSL top-level <tt>help</tt> command with no arguments will result in openssl printing all available commands by group, sorted alphabetically.
 ==Standard Commands==

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Note the above output was truncated, so only the first four lines of output are shown.
 A help menu for each command may be requested in two different ways. First, the same command used above may be repeated, followed by the name of the command to print help for.
@@ Line 572: / Line 576: @@
 |-
 |style="padding: 4px;" | [https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/openssl-enc.html enc]
-|style="padding: 4px;" |  Encoding with Ciphers.
+|style="padding: 4px;" |  Symmetric cipher routines.
 |-
 |style="padding: 4px;" | [https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/openssl-engine.html engine]
@@ Line 638: / Line 642: @@
 |-
 |style="padding: 4px;" | [https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/openssl-rand.html rand]
-|style="padding: 4px;" |  Generate pseudo-random bytes.
+|style="padding: 4px;" |  Generate pseudo-random bytes -- see [[Random Numbers]]
 |-
 |style="padding: 4px;" | [https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/openssl-rehash.html rehash]

@@ Line 413: / Line 413: @@
   $ openssl base64 -d <<< 'V2VsY29tZSB0byBvcGVuc3NsIHdpa2kK'
   Welcome to openssl wiki
 ==Generating a File Hash==

@@ Line 354: / Line 354: @@
   Enter PEM pass phrase:
   Verifying - Enter PEM pass phrase:
 ==Base64 Encoding Strings==

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
   $ openssl command [ command_options ] [ command_arguments ]
-Alternatively, you can call openssl without arguments to enter the interactive mode prompt. You may then enter commands directly, exiting with either a <code>quit</code> command or by issuing a termination signal with either <tt>Ctrl+C</tt> or <tt>Ctrl+D</tt>. The following is a sample interactive session in which the user invokes the [[primes]] command twice before using the <tt>quit</tt> command to terminate the session.
+Alternatively, you can call openssl without arguments to enter the interactive mode prompt. You may then enter commands directly, exiting with either a <code>quit</code> command or by issuing a termination signal with either <tt>Ctrl+C</tt> or <tt>Ctrl+D</tt>. The following is a sample interactive session in which the user invokes the [[prime]] command twice before using the <tt>quit</tt> command to terminate the session.
   OpenSSL> prime -generate -bits 24

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 ==== version ====
 OpenSSL> version
 OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013
 ==== ciphers ====
@@ Line 83: / Line 85: @@
 ==== engine ====
 OpenSSL> engine
 (rsax) RSAX engine support
 (dynamic) Dynamic engine loading support
 ==== speed ====
@@ Line 579: / Line 583: @@
 When you want to act as a Certificate Authority.
 OpenSSL> ca
 Using configuration from /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf
@@ Line 586: / Line 591: @@
 unable to load CA private key
 error in ca
 By default you don't have ca created...
@@ Line 591: / Line 597: @@
 ==== Certificate Request / pkcs10 / req ====
 OpenSSL> req ?
 unknown option ?
@@ Line 636: / Line 643: @@
 error in req
 ==== Certificates AKA x509  ====
@@ Line 641: / Line 649: @@
 x509 command allows you to display content of a x509 certificate and to convert it from/to [[PEM]], [[NET]] or [[DER]] formats.
 OpenSSL> x509 help
 unknown option help
@@ Line 699: / Line 708: @@
   -engine e       - use engine e, possibly a hardware device.
   -certopt arg    - various certificate text options
 ==== Client Certificates AKA pkcs12 ====

@@ Line 1,047: / Line 1,047: @@
 ==== DER <-> PEM conversion ====
-on each command handling PEM and DER format an '''inform''' and '''outform''' options are provided to specify it.
+Many openSSL commands do support both PEM and DER formats on both inputs and outputs. The formats are specified with '''inform''' and '''outform''' optional parameters (default is usually PEM).
-Then it is easy to read it in format and write it in another
+Then it is easy to read it in a format and write it in another.
 ==== pkcs8 / pkcs5 ====