OPENSSL-PKEYPARAM(1SSL)

📦
version 4.0.3 · 13 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

okay so this is openssl-pkeyparam from the OpenSSL manual section 1SSL — it's literally the public key algorithm parameter processing command 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

openssl pkeyparam [-help] [-in filename] [-out filename] [-text]
[-noout] [-check] [-provider name] [-provider-path path] [-provparam
[name:]key=value] [-propquery propq]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

bestie. this command processes public key algorithm parameters. that's the whole job 🫶

like, you feed it some params and it can

  • check them for correctness ✨
  • print out all their components 💖

and that's it. no drama, no side quests. iconic behavior honestly.

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -help — prints out a usage message. like a little "here's how you use me" note 🎀
  • -in filename — tells it which file to read parameters from. if you don't pass this, it just reads from standard input instead. no biggie 💫
  • -out filename — tells it which file to write parameters to. if you don't pass this, it goes to standard output instead.
⚠️ okay so heads up: the output filename can be the same as the input filename, and that leads to replacing the file contents. also note that file I/O is not atomic — the output file gets truncated and then written. so like, don't come for me if something goes sideways mid-write 😭
  • -text — prints out the parameters in plain text, in addition to the encoded version ✨ so you get both, cute right?
  • -noout — do not output the encoded version of the parameters. only the other stuff 💅
  • -check — checks the correctness of the parameters. this is the vibe check 🔍
  • -provider name
  • -provider-path path
  • -provparam [name:]key=value
  • -propquery propq — these four are the provider squad 🫶 go read "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7) and property(7) for the full tea ☕

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

print out the text version of the parameters:

openssl pkeyparam -in param.pem -text

that's the whole example bestie, slay 💖

🌈 NOTES 🌈

so there are no -inform or -outform options for this command. why? because only PEM format is supported — the key type is determined by the PEM headers themselves. iykyk 🧚

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

openssl(1), openssl-genpkey(1), openssl-rsa(1), openssl-pkcs8(1), openssl-dsa(1), openssl-genrsa(1), openssl-gendsa(1)

go read those too, they're all lowkey connected 💫

💀 HISTORY 💀

the -engine option was removed in OpenSSL 4.0. gone. not me mourning her 🪦

Copyright 2006-2021 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>.

okay that's the whole page bestie, no cap, you're now fully fluent in pkeyparam 💅✨

signing off from OpenSSL 4.0.3, dated 2026-09-29 — mwah, go check some params, you got this 🫶👑

📦 where this page comes from