The OpenSSL shared libraries are often installed in a directory like /usr/local/ssl/lib. If this directory is not in a standard system path for dynamic/shared libraries, then you will have problems linking and executing applications that use OpenSSL libraries UNLESS: * you link with static (archive) libraries. If you are truly paranoid about security, you should use static libraries. * you use the GNU libtool code during linking (http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/libtool.html) * you use pkg-config during linking (this requires that PKG_CONFIG_PATH includes the path to the OpenSSL shared library directory), and make use of -R or -rpath. (http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/) * you specify the system-wide link path via a command such as crle(1) on Solaris systems. * you add the OpenSSL shared library directory to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig(8) on Linux systems. * you define the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LIBPATH, SHLIB_PATH (HP), DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH (MacOS X) or PATH (Cygwin and DJGPP) environment variable and add the OpenSSL shared library directory to it. One common tool to check the dynamic dependencies of an executable or dynamic library is ldd(1) on most UNIX systems. See any operating system documentation and manpages about shared libraries for your version of UNIX. The following manpages may be helpful: ld(1), ld.so(1), ld.so.1(1) [Solaris], dld.sl(1) [HP], ldd(1), crle(1) [Solaris], pldd(1) [Solaris], ldconfig(8) [Linux], chatr(1) [HP].