openssl install links

[clemc@…]

Not complaing -- this great stuff... but it would be nice if the install script automatically linked */bin/openssl and {dgst,md5,md4,md2,sha,sha1,mdc2,ripemd160) which are all legal entry points to the command. The man page should so the same thing of course...

Clem Cole

[ryandesign@…]

We could do this. In fact, symlinks for the manpages are already being installed. However, under the heading "Changes between 0.9.1c and 0.9.2b [22 Mar 1999]", the CHANGES file says this:

  *) First cut of a cleanup for apps/. First the `ssleay' program is now named
     `openssl' and second, the shortcut symlinks for the `openssl <command>'
     are no longer created. This way we have a single and consistent command
     line interface `openssl <command>', similar to `cvs <command>'.
     [Ralf S. Engelschall, Paul Sutton and Ben Laurie]

So it seems creating these symlinks would undermine the developers' intentions of deprecating this usage 11 years ago. Or perhaps I misread this, or they've changed their minds since then.

I'm also concerned that installing a symlink "md5" would override Mac OS X's md5 program in /sbin. While they appear to produce the same output in my limited testing, I'm not yet convinced they behave identically in all circumstances, which might break software that expects "md5" to be /sbin/md5 on Mac OS X.

Apple's version of openssl in Mac OS X doesn't have these symlinks (binaries or manpages)