1certtool(1) General Commands Manual certtool(1)
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6 certtool - Manipulate certificates and keys.
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9 certtool [options]
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12 Generate X.509 certificates, certificate requests, and private keys.
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15 Program control options
16 --copyright
17 Shows the program's license
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19 -d, --debug LEVEL
20 Specify the debug level. Default is 1.
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22 -h, --help
23 Shows this help text
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25 -v, --version
26 Shows the program's version
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29 Getting information
30 -i, --certificate-info
31 Print information on a certificate.
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33 -k, --key-info
34 Print information on a private key.
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36 -l, --crl-info
37 Print information on a CRL.
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39 --p12-info
40 Print information on a PKCS #12 structure.
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43 Generating/verifying certificates/keys
44 -c, --generate-certificate
45 Generate a signed certificate.
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47 -e, --verify-chain
48 Verify a PEM encoded certificate chain. The last certificate in
49 the chain must be a self signed one.
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51 --generate-dh-params
52 Generate PKCS #3 encoded Diffie Hellman parameters.
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54 --load-ca-certificate FILE
55 Certificate authority's certificate file to use.
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57 --load-ca-privkey FILE
58 Certificate authority's private key file to use.
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60 --load-certificate FILE
61 Certificate file to use.
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63 --load-privkey FILE
64 Private key file to use.
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66 --load-request FILE
67 Certificate request file to use.
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69 -p, --generate-privkey
70 Generate a private key.
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72 -q, --generate-request
73 Generate a PKCS #10 certificate request.
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75 -s, --generate-self-signed
76 Generate a self-signed certificate.
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78 -u, --update-certificate
79 Update a signed certificate.
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82 Controlling output
83 -8, --pkcs8
84 Use PKCS #8 format for private keys.
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86 --dsa Generate a DSA key.
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88 --bits BITS
89 Specify the number of bits for key generation.
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91 --export-ciphers
92 Use weak encryption algorithms.
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94 --inder
95 Use DER format for input certificates and private keys.
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97 --infile FILE
98 Input file.
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100 --outder
101 Use DER format for output certificates and private keys.
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103 --outfile FILE
104 Output file.
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106 --password PASSWORD
107 Password to use.
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109 --to-p12
110 Generate a PKCS #12 structure.
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112 --template
113 Use a template file to read input. See the doc/certtool.cfg in
114 the distribution, for an example.
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116 --fix-key
117 Some previous versions of certtool generated wrongly the
118 optional parameters in a private key. This may affect programs
119 that used them. To fix an old private key use --key-info in com‐
120 bination with this parameter.
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124 To create a private key, run:
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126 $ certtool --generate-privkey --outfile key.pem
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128 To create a certificate request, run:
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130 $ certtool --generate-request --load-privkey key.pem \
131 --outfile request.pem
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133 To generate a certificate using the previous request, use the command:
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135 $ certtool --generate-certificate --load-request request.pem \
136 --outfile cert.pem --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem \
137 --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem
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139 To view the certificate information, use:
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141 $ certtool --certificate-info --infile cert.pem
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143 To generate a PKCS #12 structure using the previous key and certifi‐
144 cate, use the command:
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146 $ certtool --load-certificate cert.pem --load-privkey key.pem \
147 --to-p12 --outder --outfile key.p12
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151 Nikos Mavroyanopoulos <nmav@gnutls.org> and others; see
152 /usr/share/doc/gnutls-bin/AUTHORS for a complete list.
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154 This manual page was written by Ivo Timmermans <ivo@debian.org>, for
155 the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).
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159 May 23rd 2005 certtool(1)