Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

certtool

Synopsis

certtool c [h] [v] [k=keychain [c]]
certtool r filename [h] [v] [d] [k=keychain [c]]
certtool v filename [h] [v] [d]
certtool i filename [h] [v] [k=keychain [c]]
certtool d filename [h] [v]

Manages SSL/TLS certificates. It uses the Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) in much the same way that /System/Library/OpenSSL/misc/CA.pl uses OpenSSL to ease the process of managing certificates.

As arguments, it takes a single-letter command, often a filename, and possibly some options.

Options

c

As a command, walks you through a series of interactive prompts to create a certificate and a public/private key pair to sign and possibly encrypt it. The resulting certificate is stored in your default Keychain. (Note that the first prompt, for a key and certificate label, is asking for two space-separated items. Common choices are an organization name for the key, and a label designating the purpose of the certificate.)

As an option, instructs certtool to create a new Keychain by the name given in the k option.

d

As a command, displays the certificate contained in filename.

As an option, indicates that the format of the CSR contained in filename is DER (a binary format), instead of the default PEM (an ASCII format).

h

Prints a usage statement to standard output, negating whichever command was given.

i

Imports the certificate contained in filename into the default Keychain.

k

Specifies the name of a Keychain to use other than the default.

r

Walks you through a series ...