-such as hardware accelerators may be used.
-
-Initially, the default is to use the OpenSSL internal implementation.
-DSA_OpenSSL() returns a pointer to that method.
-
-DSA_set_default_openssl_method() makes B<meth> the default method for
-all DSA structures created later. B<NB:> This is true only whilst the
-default engine for DSA operations remains as "openssl". ENGINEs
-provide an encapsulation for implementations of one or more algorithms at a
-time, and all the DSA functions mentioned here operate within the scope
-of the default "openssl" engine.
-
-DSA_get_default_openssl_method() returns a pointer to the current default
-method for the "openssl" engine.
-
-DSA_set_method() selects B<engine> for all operations using the structure B<dsa>.
-
-DSA_new_method() allocates and initializes a DSA structure so that
-B<engine> will be used for the DSA operations. If B<engine> is NULL,
-the default engine for DSA operations is used.
+such as hardware accelerators may be used. IMPORTANT: See the NOTES section for
+important information about how these DSA API functions are affected by the use
+of B<ENGINE> API calls.
+
+Initially, the default DSA_METHOD is the OpenSSL internal implementation,
+as returned by DSA_OpenSSL().
+
+DSA_set_default_method() makes B<meth> the default method for all DSA
+structures created later. B<NB>: This is true only whilst no ENGINE has
+been set as a default for DSA, so this function is no longer recommended.
+
+DSA_get_default_method() returns a pointer to the current default
+DSA_METHOD. However, the meaningfulness of this result is dependent on
+whether the ENGINE API is being used, so this function is no longer
+recommended.
+
+DSA_set_method() selects B<meth> to perform all operations using the key
+B<rsa>. This will replace the DSA_METHOD used by the DSA key and if the
+previous method was supplied by an ENGINE, the handle to that ENGINE will
+be released during the change. It is possible to have DSA keys that only
+work with certain DSA_METHOD implementations (eg. from an ENGINE module
+that supports embedded hardware-protected keys), and in such cases
+attempting to change the DSA_METHOD for the key can have unexpected
+results.
+
+DSA_new_method() allocates and initializes a DSA structure so that B<engine>
+will be used for the DSA operations. If B<engine> is NULL, the default engine
+for DSA operations is used, and if no default ENGINE is set, the DSA_METHOD
+controlled by DSA_set_default_method() is used.