certtool(1)						      General Commands Manual						       certtool(1)

NAME

       certtool - Manipulate certificates and keys.

SYNOPSIS

       certtool [options]

DESCRIPTION

       Generate X.509 certificates, certificate requests, and private keys.

OPTIONS

   Program control options
       -d, --debug LEVEL
	      Specify the debug level. Default is 1.

       -h, --help
	      Shows this help text

       -v, --version
	      Shows the program's version

   Getting information on X.509 certificates
       -i, --certificate-info
	      Print information on a certificate.

       -k, --key-info
	      Print information on a private key.

       -l, --crl-info
	      Print information on a CRL.

       --p12-info
	      Print information on a PKCS #12 structure.

   Getting information on Openpgp certificates
       --pgp--certificate-info
	      Print information on an OpenPGP certificate.

       --pgp--key-info
	      Print information on an OpenPGP private key.

       --pgp--ring-info
	      Print information on a keyring.

   Generating/verifying X.509 certificates/keys
       -c, --generate-certificate
	      Generate a signed certificate.

       -e, --verify-chain
	      Verify a PEM encoded certificate chain.  The last certificate in the chain must be a self signed one.

       --generate-dh-params
	      Generate PKCS #3 encoded Diffie-Hellman parameters.

       --load-ca-certificate FILE
	      Certificate authority's certificate file to use.

       --load-ca-privkey FILE
	      Certificate authority's private key file or PKCS #11 URL to use.

       --load-certificate FILE
	      Certificate file to use.

       --load-privkey FILE
	      Private key file	or PKCS #11 URL to use.

       --load-pubkey FILE
	      Public key file  or PKCS #11 URL to use.

       --load-request FILE
	      Certificate request file to use.

       -p, --generate-privkey
	      Generate a private key.

       -q, --generate-request
	      Generate a PKCS #10 certificate request.

       -s, --generate-self-signed
	      Generate a self-signed certificate.

       -u, --update-certificate
	      Update a signed certificate.

   Controlling output
       -8, --pkcs8
	      Use PKCS #8 format for private keys.

       --pkcs-cipher
	      The cipher to use when doing pkcs encryption. Valid options are 3des,aes-128,aes-192,aes-256,rc2-40

       --dsa  Generate a DSA key.

       --bits BITS
	      Specify the number of bits for key generation.

       --export-ciphers
	      Use weak encryption algorithms.

       --inraw
	      Use RAW/DER format for input certificates and private keys.

       --infile FILE
	      Input file.

       --outraw
	      Use RAW/DER format for output certificates and private keys.

       --outfile FILE
	      Output file.

       --password PASSWORD
	      Password to use.

       --to-p12
	      Generate a PKCS #12 structure.

       --template
	      Use a template file to read input. See the doc/certtool.cfg in the distribution, for an example.

       --fix-key
	      Some  previous  versions	of certtool generated wrongly the optional parameters in a private key. This may affect programs that used
	      them. To fix an old private key use --key-info in combination with this parameter.

       --v1   When generating a certificate use the X.509 version 1 format.  This does not add any extensions (such as indication for  a  CA)  but
	      some programs do need these.

EXAMPLES

       To create a private key, run:

	      $ certtool --generate-privkey --outfile key.pem

       To create a certificate request (needed when the certificate is issued by another party), run:

	      $ certtool --generate-request --load-privkey key.pem 
		 --outfile request.pem

       To create a certificate request using a key stored in a PKCS #11 token, run:

	      $ ./certtool --generate-request --load-privkey "pkcs11:..." 
		--load-pubkey "pkcs11:..." --outfile request.pem

       To generate a certificate using the previous request, use the command:

	      $ certtool --generate-certificate --load-request request.pem 
		 --outfile cert.pem --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem 
		 --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem

       To generate a certificate using the private key only, use the command:

	      $ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey key.pem 
		 --outfile cert.pem --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem 
		 --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem

       To view the certificate information, use:

	      $ certtool --certificate-info --infile cert.pem

       To generate a PKCS #12 structure using the previous key and certificate, use the command:

	      $ certtool --load-certificate cert.pem --load-privkey key.pem 
		 --to-p12 --outder --outfile key.p12

AUTHOR

       Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos <nmav@gnutls.org> and others; see /usr/share/doc/gnutls-bin/AUTHORS for a complete list.

       This manual page was written by Ivo Timmermans <ivo@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).

								   May 23rd 2005						       certtool(1)