1
2=pod
3
4=head1 NAME
5
6config - OpenSSL CONF library configuration files
7
8=head1 DESCRIPTION
9
10The OpenSSL CONF library can be used to read configuration files.
11It is used for the OpenSSL master configuration file B<openssl.cnf>
12and in a few other places like B<SPKAC> files and certificate extension
13files for the B utility.
14
15A configuration file is divided into a number of sections. Each section
16starts with a line B<[ section_name ]> and ends when a new section is
17started or end of file is reached. A section name can consist of
18alphanumeric characters and underscores.
19
20The first section of a configuration file is special and is referred
21to as the B<default> section this is usually unnamed and is from the

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46if the program looks up environment variables using the B<CONF> library
47instead of calling B<getenv()> directly.
48
49It is possible to escape certain characters by using any kind of quote
50or the B<\> character. By making the last character of a line a B<\>
51a B<value> string can be spread across multiple lines. In addition
52the sequences B<\n>, B<\r>, B<\b> and B<\t> are recognized.
53
54=head1 NOTES
55
56If a configuration file attempts to expand a variable that doesn't exist
57then an error is flagged and the file will not load. This can happen
58if an attempt is made to expand an environment variable that doesn't
59exist. For example the default OpenSSL master configuration file used
60the value of B<HOME> which may not be defined on non Unix systems.
61
62This can be worked around by including a B<default> section to provide
63a default value: then if the environment lookup fails the default value
64will be used instead. For this to work properly the default value must
65be defined earlier in the configuration file than the expansion. See
66the B<EXAMPLES> section for an example of how to do this.
67
68If the same variable exists in the same section then all but the last

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