OPENSSL-REHASH(1SSL) OpenSSL OPENSSL-REHASH(1SSL)
NAME
openssl-rehash, c_rehash - Create symbolic links to files named by the
hash values
SYNOPSIS =for openssl duplicate options
openssl rehash [-h] [-help] [-old] [-compat] [-n] [-v] [-provider name]
[-provider-path path] [-provparam [name:]key=value] [-propquery propq]
[directory] ...
c_rehash [-h] [-help] [-old] [-n] [-v] [-provider name] [-provider-path
path] [-provparam [name:]key=value] [-propquery propq] [directory] ...
DESCRIPTION
This command is generally equivalent to the external script c_rehash,
except for minor differences noted below.
openssl rehash scans directories and calculates a hash value of each
.pem, .crt, .cer, or .crl file in the specified directory list and
creates symbolic links for each file, where the name of the link is the
hash value. (If the platform does not support symbolic links, a copy is
made.) This command is useful as many programs that use OpenSSL require
directories to be set up like this in order to find certificates.
If any directories are named on the command line, then those are
processed in turn. If not, then the SSL_CERT_DIR environment variable is
consulted; this should be a colon-separated list of directories, like
the Unix PATH variable. If that is not set then the default directory
(installation-specific but often /usr/local/ssl/certs) is processed.
In order for a directory to be processed, the user must have write
permissions on that directory, otherwise an error will be generated.
The links created are of the form HHHHHHHH.D, where each H is a
hexadecimal character and D is a single decimal digit. When a directory
is processed, all links in it that have a name in that syntax are first
removed, even if they are being used for some other purpose. To skip
the removal step, use the -n flag. Hashes for CRL's look similar except
the letter r appears after the period, like this: HHHHHHHH.rD.
Multiple objects may have the same hash; they will be indicated by
incrementing the D value. Duplicates are found by comparing the full
SHA-1 fingerprint. A warning will be displayed if a duplicate is found.
A warning will also be displayed if there are files that cannot be
parsed as either a certificate or a CRL or if more than one such object
appears in the file.
Script Configuration
The c_rehash script uses the openssl program to compute the hashes and
fingerprints. If not found in the user's PATH, then set the OPENSSL
environment variable to the full pathname. Any program can be used, it
will be invoked as follows for either a certificate or CRL:
$OPENSSL x509 -hash -fingerprint -noout -in FILENAME
$OPENSSL crl -hash -fingerprint -noout -in FILENAME
where FILENAME is the filename. It must output the hash of the file on
the first line, and the fingerprint on the second, optionally prefixed
with some text and an equals sign.
OPTIONS
-help -h
Display a brief usage message.
-old
Use old-style hashing (MD5, as opposed to SHA-1) for generating
links to be used for releases before 1.0.0. Note that current
versions will not use the old style.
-n Do not remove existing links. This is needed when keeping new and
old-style links in the same directory.
-compat
Generate links for both old-style (MD5) and new-style (SHA1)
hashing. This allows releases before 1.0.0 to use these links
along-side newer releases.
-v Print messages about old links removed and new links created. By
default, this command only lists each directory as it is processed.
-provider name
-provider-path path
-provparam [name:]key=value
-propquery propq
See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).
ENVIRONMENT
OPENSSL
The path to an executable to use to generate hashes and fingerprints
(see above).
SSL_CERT_DIR
Colon separated list of directories to operate on. Ignored if
directories are listed on the command line.
SEE ALSO
openssl(1), openssl-crl(1), openssl-x509(1)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2015-2025 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>.
3.5.4 2025-09-30 OPENSSL-REHASH(1SSL)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:07:11 CET 2025.