/dt>
<dd>

<p>This option provides the private key for signing a new certificate or certificate request. Unless <b>-in</b> is given, the corresponding public key is placed in the new certificate or certificate request, resulting in a self-signature.</p>

<p>For certificate signing this option is overridden by the <b>-CA</b> option.</p>

<p>This option also accepts PKCS#8 format private keys for PEM format files.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="keyform-DER-PEM-P12-ENGINE"><b>-keyform</b> <b>DER</b>|<b>PEM</b>|<b>P12</b>|