{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "openssl-format-options",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/openssl-format-options/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-03T01:28:26Z",
    "synopsis": "openssl command [ options ... ] [ parameters ... ]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "openssl-format-options - OpenSSL command input and output format options\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "openssl command [ options ... ] [ parameters ... ]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "Several OpenSSL commands can take input or generate output in a variety of formats.\n\nSince OpenSSL 3.0 keys, single certificates, and CRLs can be read from files in any of the\nDER, PEM or P12 formats. Specifying their input format is no more needed and the openssl\ncommands will automatically try all the possible formats. However if the DER or PEM input\nformat is specified it will be enforced.\n\nIn order to access a key via an engine the input format ENGINE may be used; alternatively the\nkey identifier in the <uri> argument of the respective key option may be preceded by\n\"org.openssl.engine:\".  See \"Engine Options\" in openssl(1) for an example usage of the\nlatter.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "Format Options",
                    "content": "The options to specify the format are as follows.  Refer to the individual man page to see\nwhich options are accepted.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-inform -outform",
                    "content": "The format of the input or output streams.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-keyform",
                    "content": "Format of a private key input source.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-CRLform",
                    "content": "Format of a CRL input source.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Format Option Arguments",
                    "content": "The possible format arguments are described below.  Both uppercase and lowercase are\naccepted.\n\nThe list of acceptable format arguments, and the default, is described in each command\ndocumentation.\n\nDER A binary format, encoded or parsed according to Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER) of the\nASN.1 data language.\n\nENGINE\nUsed to specify that the cryptographic material is in an OpenSSL engine.  An engine must\nbe configured or specified using the -engine option.  A password or PIN may be supplied\nto the engine using the -passin option.\n\nP12 A DER-encoded file containing a PKCS#12 object.  It might be necessary to provide a\ndecryption password to retrieve the private key.\n\nPEM A text format defined in IETF RFC 1421 and IETF RFC 7468. Briefly, this is a block of\nbase-64 encoding (defined in IETF RFC 4648), with specific lines used to mark the start\nand end:\n\nText before the BEGIN line is ignored.\n----- BEGIN object-type -----\nOT43gQKBgQC/2OHZoko6iRlNOAQ/tMVFNq7fL81GivoQ9F1U0Qr+DH3ZfaH8eIkX\nxT0ToMPJUzWAn8pZv0snA0um6SIgvkCuxO84OkANCVbttzXImIsL7pFzfcwV/ERK\nUM6j0ZuSMFOCr/lGPAoOQU0fskidGEHi1/kW+suSr28TqsyYZpwBDQ==\n----- END object-type -----\nText after the END line is also ignored\n\nThe object-type must match the type of object that is expected.  For example a \"BEGIN\nX509 CERTIFICATE\" will not match if the command is trying to read a private key. The\ntypes supported include:\n\nANY PRIVATE KEY\nCERTIFICATE\nCERTIFICATE REQUEST\nCMS\nDH PARAMETERS\nDSA PARAMETERS\nDSA PUBLIC KEY\nEC PARAMETERS\nEC PRIVATE KEY\nECDSA PUBLIC KEY\nENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY\nPARAMETERS\nPKCS #7 SIGNED DATA\nPKCS7\nPRIVATE KEY\nPUBLIC KEY\nRSA PRIVATE KEY\nSSL SESSION PARAMETERS\nTRUSTED CERTIFICATE\nX509 CRL\nX9.42 DH PARAMETERS\n\nThe following legacy object-type's are also supported for compatibility with earlier\nreleases:\n\nDSA PRIVATE KEY\nNEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST\nRSA PUBLIC KEY\nX509 CERTIFICATE\n\nSMIME\nAn S/MIME object as described in IETF RFC 8551.  Earlier versions were known as CMS and\nare compatible.  Note that the parsing is simple and might fail to parse some legal data.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "COPYRIGHT": {
            "content": "Copyright 2000-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.\n\nLicensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the \"License\").  You may not use this file except in\ncompliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source\ndistribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.\n\n\n\n3.0.2                                        2026-04-07                 OPENSSL-FORMAT-OPTIONS(1SSL)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "openssl-format-options - OpenSSL command input and output format options",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "The format of the input or output streams."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Format of a private key input source."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Format of a CRL input source."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": []
}