openssl format-options

OpenSSL command input and output format options 

openssl command

SYNOPSIS

openssl command [options ...] [parameters ...]

DESCRIPTION

Several OpenSSL commands can take input or generate output in a variety of formats.

Since OpenSSL 3.0 keys, single certificates, and CRLs can be read from files in any of the DER, PEM or P12 formats. Specifying their input format is no more needed and the openssl commands will automatically try all the possible formats. However if the DER or PEM input format is specified it will be enforced.

In order to access a key via an engine the input format ENGINE may be used; alternatively the key identifier in the uri argument of the respective key option may be preceded by "org.openssl.engine:". See Engine Options in openssl for example usage of the latter.

OPTIONS

Format Options 

The options to specify the format are as follows. Refer to the individual man page to see which options are accepted.

-inform format 
-outform format 

The format of the input or output streams.

-keyform format 

Format of a private key input source.

-keyform format 

Format of a CRL input source.

Format Option Arguments 

The possible format arguments are described below. Both uppercase and lowercase are accepted.

The list of acceptable format arguments, and the default, is described in each command documentation.

DER 

A binary format, encoded or parsed according to Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER) of the ASN.1 data language.

P12 

A DER-encoded file containing a PKCS#12 object. It might be necessary to provide a decryption password to retrieve the private key.

PEM 

A DER-encoded file containing a PKCS#12 object. It might be necessary to provide a decryption password to retrieve the private key.

Text before the BEGIN line is ignored. 

----- BEGIN object-type -----
OT43gQKBgQC/2OHZoko6iRlNOAQ/tMVFNq7fL81GivoQ9F1U0Qr+DH3ZfaH8eIkX
xT0ToMPJUzWAn8pZv0snA0um6SIgvkCuxO84OkANCVbttzXImIsL7pFzfcwV/ERK
UM6j0ZuSMFOCr/lGPAoOQU0fskidGEHi1/kW+suSr28TqsyYZpwBDQ==
----- END object-type -----

Text after the END line is also ignored.

The object-type must match the type of object that is expected. For example a "BEGIN X509 CERTIFICATE" will not match if the command is trying to read a private key. The types supported include: 

ANY PRIVATE KEY
CERTIFICATE
CERTIFICATE REQUEST
CMS
DH PARAMETERS
DSA PARAMETERS
DSA PUBLIC KEY
EC PARAMETERS
EC PRIVATE KEY
ECDSA PUBLIC KEY
ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY
PARAMETERS
PKCS #7 SIGNED DATA
PKCS7
PRIVATE KEY
PUBLIC KEY
RSA PRIVATE KEY
SSL SESSION PARAMETERS
TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
X509 CRL
X9.42 DH PARAMETERS

The following legacy object-type's are also supported for compatibility with earlier releases: 

DSA PRIVATE KEY
NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST
RSA PUBLIC KEY
X509 CERTIFICATE
SMIME 

An S/MIME object as described in IETF RFC 8551. Earlier versions were known as CMS and are compatible. Note that the parsing is simple and might fail to parse some legal data.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2000-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or here: OpenSSL.

AVAILABILITY

PTC MKS Toolkit for System Administrators
PTC MKS Toolkit for Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Interoperability
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers 64-Bit Edition
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-Bit Edition

PTC MKS Toolkit 10.5 Documentation Build 40.