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authorLutz Jänicke <jaenicke@openssl.org>2002-07-10 19:48:51 +0000
committerLutz Jänicke <jaenicke@openssl.org>2002-07-10 19:48:51 +0000
commitc4da6dd38a7d7bd17957078174384b65a764a6c0 (patch)
tree892eb41437b6b6d06cb78d101fccd53318a9061b /FAQ
parent2edcb4ac7143e19409271956e2319f4fe246bb8c (diff)
Discussion about Redhat's specialties for the FAQ.
Submitted by: John.Airey@rnib.org.uk Reviewed by: PR: 128
Diffstat (limited to 'FAQ')
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1 files changed, 36 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/FAQ b/FAQ
index fae0b855bf..ec7a22242a 100644
--- a/FAQ
+++ b/FAQ
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ OpenSSL - Frequently Asked Questions
* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail on Alpha Tru64 Unix?
* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail with "ar: command not found"?
* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail on Win32 with VC++?
+* What is special about OpenSSL on Redhat?
[PROG] Questions about programming with OpenSSL
@@ -463,6 +464,41 @@ under 'Program Files'). This needs to be done prior to running NMAKE,
and the changes are only valid for the current DOS session.
+* What is special about OpenSSL on Redhat?
+
+Red Hat Linux 7.0 and following versions already have a limited version of
+openssl already installed. This may well apply to other Linux distributions
+also. This version does not have support for the IDEA, RC5 and MDC-2
+algorithms as these are patented within the United States. For information
+these patent numbers and expiry dates are:
+
+MDC-2: 4,908,861 13/03/2007
+IDEA: 5,214,703 25/05/2010
+RC5: 5,724,428 03/03/2015
+
+However, Europeans and other non-Americans may wish to install all the
+features.
+
+To do this you MUST ensure that you do not overwrite the openssl that is in
+/usr/bin on your Red Hat machine. Several packages depend on this file,
+including sendmail and ssh. /usr/local/bin is a good alternative choice. The
+libraries that come with Red Hat 7.0 onwards have different names and so are
+not affected. (eg For Red Hat 7.2 they are /lib/libssl.so.0.9.6b and
+/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.6b with symlinks /lib/libssl.so.2 and
+/lib/libcrypto.so.2 respectively).
+
+Please note that we have been advised by Red Hat attempting to recompile the
+openssl rpm with all the cryptography enabled will not work. All other
+packages depend on the original Red Hat supplied openssl package. It is also
+worth noting that due to the way Red Hat supplies its packages, updates to
+openssl on each distribution never change the package version, only the
+build number. For example, on Red Hat 7.1, the latest openssl package has
+version number 0.9.6 and build number 9 even though it contains all the
+relevant updates in packages up to and including 0.9.6b.
+
+A possible way around this is to persuade Red Hat to produce a non-US
+version of Red Hat Linux.
+
[PROG] ========================================================================
* Is OpenSSL thread-safe?