OPENSSL-CRL2PKCS7(1ossl)

📦 version 3.5.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

✨ openssl-crl2pkcs7 — the 1ossl manual, but make it make sense ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the openssl-crl2pkcs7 page 💅 this is the OpenSSL man page for the crl2pkcs7 command, and honestly? she's a little one-trick pony but she EATS. basically: you hand her a CRL and some certs, she hands you back a PKCS#7 bundle. iconic behavior.

🎀 NAME 🎀

openssl-crl2pkcs7 — literally just "Create a PKCS#7 structure from a CRL and certificates". that's it, that's the job, and she does it flawlessly no cap 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

openssl crl2pkcs7 [-help] [-inform DER|PEM] [-outform DER|PEM] [-in
filename] [-out filename] [-certfile filename] [-nocrl] [-provider name]
[-provider-path path] [-provparam [name:]key=value] [-propquery propq]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: this command takes an optional CRL plus one or more certificates, and squishes them all together into a PKCS#7 degenerate "certificates only" structure. degenerate in the technical sense, not in the personality sense 💀 she's just a container, bestie, and she's doing great.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • -help — prints a usage message. your classic "wait what were the flags again" button ✨
  • -inform DER|PEM — the input format of the CRL. default is PEM. see openssl-format-options(1) for the details if you wanna go deeper 👀
  • -outform DER|PEM — the output format of the PKCS#7 object. default is PEM. also see openssl-format-options(1) 🌈
  • -in filename — tells her which input filename to read the CRL from. if you don't give this, she reads from standard input. main character energy of "i'll just take whatever you give me" 😌
  • -out filename — the output filename to write the PKCS#7 structure to. by default it goes to standard output 🎀
  • -certfile filename — a filename containing one or more certificates in PEM format. ALL the certificates in that file get added to the PKCS#7 structure, every single one, no crumbs left behind. also: you can use this option more than once to pull certs from multiple files. obsessed with the flexibility fr fr 🔥
  • -nocrl — okay so normally a CRL is included in the output file. with this flag, no CRL goes in the output and no CRL gets read from the input file. she's not even gonna look at it. boundaries 💅
  • -provider name
  • -provider-path path
  • -provparam [name:]key=value
  • -propquery propq — these are the provider options, bestie. see "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7) for the full lore 🧚

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

make a PKCS#7 structure from a certificate and CRL:

openssl crl2pkcs7 -in crl.pem -certfile cert.pem -out p7.pem

create a PKCS#7 structure in DER format with NO CRL, from several different certificates:

openssl crl2pkcs7 -nocrl -certfile newcert.pem
       -certfile demoCA/cacert.pem -outform DER -out p7.der

see how she used -certfile twice? that's the multiple-files thing in action. slay 🌸

👑 NOTES 👑

the output file is a PKCS#7 signed data structure containing no signers and just certificates and an optional CRL. no signers!! she's just holding the certs, not vouching for them, don't @ me 💀

this command can be used to send certificates and CAs to Netscape as part of the certificate enrollment process. that involves sending the DER encoded output as MIME type application/x-x509-user-cert. yes, Netscape. we're in the archives today and it's lowkey a museum trip 🏛️

the PEM encoded form with the header and footer lines removed can be used to install user certificates and CAs in MSIE using the Xenroll control. MSIE. Xenroll. the lore is DEEP, bestie 😭

🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

openssl(1), openssl-pkcs7(1)

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 at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

ngl the license part is not the fun part but we do NOT skip it, that's the rule 🫶

and that's the whole page, bestie!! written by the 1ossl girlies, version 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25 — go forth and bundle those certs 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from