Mac – Will installation of macports automatically install or update OpenSSL

macportsopenssl

I am a mac user and want to stay with the system-provided version of OpenSSL, which is OpenSSL 0.9.8y. I am wondering if installation of macports will automatically update my OpenSSL or install another version?

Also, how can I check the version of the OpenSSL library on my mac instead of the version of the OpenSSL command? Do they always have the same version? Thanks!

Best Answer

MacPorts will not replace your system-provided version of OpenSSL. If you install OpenSSL using MacPorts, it will do so in a separate prefix (by default /opt/local).

To check the version of the OpenSSL library, run /path/to/openssl version where /path/to/openssl is the path of the OpenSSL binary that corresponds to the library you want to check, e.g. /usr/bin/openssl for the system OpenSSL in /usr/lib/libssl.dylib and /opt/local/bin/openssl for the MacPorts OpenSSL in /opt/local/lib/libssl.dylib.

You can also check the OpenSSL library version directly using

$> strings /path/to/libssl.dylib | grep -E '^OpenSSL'

e.g. for MacPorts:

$> strings /opt/local/lib/libssl.dylib | grep -E '^OpenSSL'
OpenSSL 1.0.1i 6 Aug 2014

and for system OpenSSL:

$> strings /usr/lib/libssl.dylib | grep -E '^OpenSSL'
OpenSSL 0.9.8y 5 Feb 2013
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