OPENSSL-CMDS(1ossl)

πŸ“¦ version 3.5.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

πŸ’… OPENSSL-CMDS πŸ’…

okay bestie, so this is the master page for the OpenSSL application commands, and honestly it's giving ✨hub✨ energy. It's from the OpenSSL manual fam, and it's basically the group chat roster β€” every subcommand gets @'d here, then goes off to live in its own individual page. 🌈


🌸 NAME 🌸

okay so here's the full squad, all fifty-ish of them, in exactly this order, no cap:

asn1parse, ca, ciphers, cmp, cms, crl, crl2pkcs7, dgst, dhparam, dsa, dsaparam, ec, ecparam, enc, engine, errstr, gendsa, genpkey, genrsa, info, kdf, mac, nseq, ocsp, passwd, pkcs12, pkcs7, pkcs8, pkey, pkeyparam, pkeyutl, prime, rand, rehash, req, rsa, rsautl, s_client, s_server, s_time, sess_id, smime, speed, spkac, srp, storeutl, ts, verify, version, x509

🫢 and what are they collectively? OpenSSL application commands. that's the whole vibe. πŸ‘‘


πŸ¦‹ SYNOPSIS πŸ¦‹

so the shape of literally every invocation is this, keep it in your notes:

openssl cmd -help | [-option | -option arg] ... [arg] ...

that's the blueprint. cmd goes in, options and args follow. iconic structure. πŸ’…


πŸŽ€ DESCRIPTION πŸŽ€

every single cmd up there is a (sub-)command of the openssl(1) application β€” like, they all live under the same roof 🏠. and each one has its own detailed manual page sitting at openssl-cmd(1).

so say you wanna peep the manual for the openssl dgst command? you literally just type:

man openssl-dgst

that's it. that's the whole trick. iykyk. ✨


πŸ’– OPTIONS πŸ’–

among others β€” yes, among others, meaning there's more where this came from β€” every subcommand has a help option. every. single. one. 🫑

  • -help β€” prints out a usage message for the subcommand. your lil "wait what do i type again" safety net. use it, bestie. 🌸

πŸ”₯ SEE ALSO πŸ”₯

the whole friend group, tagged and everything (and yes, the list ends on a comma in the original β€” i'm keeping it, that's just how it is πŸ’€):

openssl(1), openssl-asn1parse(1), openssl-ca(1), openssl-ciphers(1), openssl-cmp(1), openssl-cms(1), openssl-crl(1), openssl-crl2pkcs7(1), openssl-dgst(1), openssl-dhparam(1), openssl-dsa(1), openssl-dsaparam(1), openssl-ec(1), openssl-ecparam(1), openssl-enc(1), openssl-engine(1), openssl-errstr(1), openssl-gendsa(1), openssl-genpkey(1), openssl-genrsa(1), openssl-info(1), openssl-kdf(1), openssl-mac(1), openssl-nseq(1), openssl-ocsp(1), openssl-passwd(1), openssl-pkcs12(1), openssl-pkcs7(1), openssl-pkcs8(1), openssl-pkey(1), openssl-pkeyparam(1), openssl-pkeyutl(1), openssl-prime(1), openssl-rand(1), openssl-rehash(1), openssl-req(1), openssl-rsa(1), openssl-rsautl(1), openssl-s_client(1), openssl-s_server(1), openssl-s_time(1), openssl-sess_id(1), openssl-smime(1), openssl-speed(1), openssl-spkac(1), openssl-srp(1), openssl-storeutl(1), openssl-ts(1), openssl-verify(1), openssl-version(1), openssl-x509(1),


🌈 HISTORY 🌈

okay story time πŸ“– β€” back in the day, the manual page entry for openssl cmd used to live at cmd(1). just like that, no prefix, raw.

then later they introduced the alias openssl-cmd(1), which lowkey made everything better β€” it made it easier to group the openssl commands together using the apropos(1) command or the shell's tab completion. 🎯 like, suddenly everything was organized and findable. slay.

⚠️ important, bestie: in order to reduce cluttering of the global manual page namespace, the manual page entries without the openssl- prefix have been deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0 and will be removed in OpenSSL 4.0. so if you're still reaching for the old unprefixed names β€” they're on their way out. the clock is ticking. πŸ’€β³

Copyright 2019-2020 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 at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>. πŸ“œβœ¨


aaaand that's the page!! πŸŽ€ mwah πŸ’‹ β€” this one's version 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25, and it's OPENSSL-CMDS(1ossl) all the way down. go be iconic with your subcommands, bestie. πŸ‘‘πŸ’…πŸ¦‹

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