1libtls(7)            BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual            libtls(7)
2

NAME

4     LibreTLS — libtls for OpenSSL
5

DESCRIPTION

7     LibreTLS is a port of libtls from LibreSSL to OpenSSL.  libtls:
8           https://man.openbsd.org/tls_init.3
9     is “a new TLS library, designed to make it easier to write foolproof
10     applications”.
11
12     libtls provides an excellent new API, but LibreSSL can be difficult to
13     install on systems which already use OpenSSL.  LibreTLS aims to make the
14     libtls API more easily and widely available.
15
16   Releases
17     LibreTLS is based on LibreSSL-portable:
18           https://www.libressl.org/releases.html
19     sources.  LibreTLS releases track LibreSSL releases, starting with ver‐
20     sion 3.2.0.  If patches must be released between LibreSSL releases, the
21     letter ‘p’ followed by an increasing digit starting from 1 will be added
22     to the version number.
23
24     LibreTLS release tarballs are available from .:
25           https://causal.agency/libretls/
26
27   Compatibility
28     The libtls provided by LibreTLS is ABI-compatible with the libtls pro‐
29     vided by the corresponding LibreSSL release.
30
31     The behaviour of LibreTLS and LibreSSL differs in how the root certifi‐
32     cates are loaded by default.  LibreSSL uses a hardcoded path to a CA bun‐
33     dle file, while LibreTLS uses the default CA locations of OpenSSL, which
34     may include a CA directory.  To restore the behaviour of LibreSSL, call
35     tls_config_set_ca_file(3) with the path returned by
36     tls_default_ca_cert_file(3).  All other behaviour should be identical.
37
38     LibreTLS targets the OpenSSL 1.1.1 series.  Due to a bug in OpenSSL, only
39     versions 1.1.1b and newer are known to work.
40
41   Platform Support
42     LibreTLS should work on the same platforms as LibreSSL-portable:
43           https://www.libressl.org/releases.html,
44     though it has not been thoroughly tested on platforms other than Linux,
45     FreeBSD and macOS.
46
47   License
48     libtls consists of all new code developed as part of OpenBSD under
49     OpenBSD's preferred license:
50           https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html
51     of ISC.  Some compat sources are under the 3-clause BSD license or the
52     MIT license.
53
54     LibreTLS is not encumbered by the dual-licensing of OpenSSL under both
55     the OpenSSL license and the original SSLeay license, which are incompati‐
56     ble with the GNU General Public License.  When OpenSSL 3.0 is released
57     under the Apache 2.0 license, software under the GPLv3 will be able to
58     link against LibreTLS and OpenSSL without additional permissions.
59

INSTALLING

61     To install from a release tarball, run the following:
62
63           ./configure
64           make all
65           make install
66
67     To install from a git checkout, autoconf, automake and libtool are
68     required.  Run the following before continuing with the steps above:
69
70           autoreconf -fi
71

AUTHORS

73     LibreTLS is maintained by June Bug <june@causal.agency>.
74
75     LibreSSL is developed by The OpenBSD project: https://www.openbsd.org.
76
77Causal Agency                   August 3, 2020                   Causal Agency
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