NOTE: this article is outdated. The "generic" and "windows-nsis" build systems have not been in use in years. They can still be found from depths of openvpn-build Git repository, but are not that useful. The only case where you might want to look at them is when you want to cross-compile OpenVPN or build NSIS packages of it using Linux or equivalent.

Project structure

Look here for details.

Building natively on *NIX

If building from Git sources, first do a

$ autoreconf -vi

If building from a release tarball, you can skip the above step. To configure, build and install OpenVPN, use these commands:

$ ./configure <configure-options>
$ make
$ make install

In most cases, you'd use something like this:

$ ./configure

If you're using password authentication, you may be interested in support for password stored in (properly protected!) files:

$ ./configure --enable-password-save

Or, if you want to use smart cards and such, you should use

$ ./configure --enable-pkcs11

Cross-compiling on *NIX ("generic" subdir)

Removed, only MSVC builds are currently supported.

Creating a NSIS installer ("windows-nsis" subdir)

Removed, only MSI installer is currently supported.

Code-signing

SignTool is used to sign OpenVPN installer, libraries and executables.. Official OpenVPN releases will be signed with OpenVPN Technologies, Inc. code signing keys. However, it's fairly easy to build a custom version of OpenVPN and sign it with your own code-signing keys.

Making the release builds of OpenVPN

See [wiki:Openvpn2ReleaseProcess].

External links

Official OpenVPN Git repositories