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libmongocrypt

The companion C library for client side encryption in drivers.

Bugs / Feature Requests

If you have encountered a bug, or would like to see a new feature in libmongocrypt, please open a case in our issue management tool, JIRA:

Create an account and login.
Navigate to the MONGOCRYPT project.
Click Create Issue - Please provide as much information as possible about the issue type and how to reproduce it.

Documentation

See The Integration Guide to integrate with your driver.

See mongocrypt.h for the public API reference. The documentation can be rendered into HTML with doxygen. Run doxygen ./doc/Doxygen, then open ./doc/html/index.html.

Building libmongocrypt

On Windows and macOS, libmongocrypt can use the platform's default encryption APIs as its encryption backend. On other systems, one will want to install the OpenSSL development libraries, which libmongocrypt will use as the default encryption backend.

Then build libmongocrypt:

git clone https://github.com/mongodb/libmongocrypt
cd libmongocrypt
mkdir cmake-build && cd cmake-build
cmake ../
make

This builds libmongocrypt.dylib and test-libmongocrypt, in the cmake-build directory.

Installing libmongocrypt on macOS

Install the latest release of libmongocrypt with the following.

brew install mongodb/brew/libmongocrypt

To install the latest unstable development version of libmongocrypt, use brew install mongodb/brew/libmongocrypt --HEAD. Do not use the unstable version of libmongocrypt in a production environment.

Building libmongocrypt from source on macOS

First install Homebrew according to its own instructions.

Install the XCode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

Then clone and build libmongocrypt:

git clone https://github.com/mongodb/libmongocrypt.git
cd libmongocrypt
cmake .
cmake --build . --target install

Then, libmongocrypt can be used with pkg-config:

pkg-config libmongocrypt --libs --cflags

Or use cmake's find_package:

find_package (mongocrypt)
# Then link against mongo::mongocrypt

Installing libmongocrypt on Windows

A Windows DLL for x86_64 is available on the Github Releases page. See the latest release.

Use gpg to verify the signature. The public key for libmongocrypt is available on https://pgp.mongodb.com/.

Testing

test-mongocrypt mocks all I/O with files stored in the test/data and test/example directories. Run test-mongocrypt from the source directory:

cd libmongocrypt
./cmake-build/test-mongocrypt

libmongocrypt is continuously built and published on evergreen. Submit patch builds to this evergreen project when making changes to test on supported platforms. The latest tarball containing libmongocrypt built on all supported variants is published here.

Troubleshooting

If OpenSSL is installed in a non-default directory, pass -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/path/to/openssl to the cmake command for libmongocrypt.

If there are errors with cmake configuration, send the set of steps you performed to the maintainers of this project.

If there are compilation or linker errors, run make again, setting VERBOSE=1 in the environment or on the command line (which shows exact compile and link commands), and send the output to the maintainers of this project.

Design Principles

The design of libmongocrypt adheres to these principles.

Easy to integrate

The main reason behind creating a C library is to make it easier for drivers to support FLE. Some consequences of this principle: the API is minimal, structs are opaque, and global initialization is lazy.

Lightweight

We decided against the "have libmongocrypt do everything" approach because it complicated integration, especially with async drivers. Because of this we decided no I/O occurs in libmongocrypt.

Releasing

See releasing.

Installing libmongocrypt From Distribution Packages

Distribution packages (i.e., .deb/.rpm) are built and published for several Linux distributions. The installation of these packages for supported platforms is documented here.

Unstable Development Distribution Packages

To install the latest unstable development package, change 1.11 to development in the package URLs listed in the subsequent instructions. For example, https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/apt/ubuntu <release>/libmongocrypt/1.11 in the instructions would become https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/apt/ubuntu <release>/libmongocrypt/development. Do not use the unstable version of libmongocrypt in a production environment.

.deb Packages (Debian and Ubuntu)

The repository containing the Debian and Ubuntu .deb packages can be configured automatically, using extrepo, or manually. Once the repository is configured then the packages can be installed.

Repository configuration with extrepo

Extrepo is available on Debian 11 and newer, as well as Ubuntu 20.04 and newer.

First, install the extrepo package:

sudo apt install extrepo

If you would like to see the information about the repository, it can be viewed with the search command:

extrepo search libmongocrypt

In order to enable the repository, execute this command:

sudo extrepo enable libmongocrypt

Once the repository is configured, continue with package installation.

Manual repository configuration

First, import the public key used to sign the package repositories:

sudo sh -c 'curl -s --location https://pgp.mongodb.com/libmongocrypt.asc | gpg --dearmor >/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/libmongocrypt.gpg'

Second, create a list entry for the repository. For Ubuntu systems (be sure to change <release> to xenial, bionic, focal, or jammy, as appropriate to your system):

echo "deb https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/apt/ubuntu <release>/libmongocrypt/1.11 universe" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libmongocrypt.list

For Debian systems (be sure to change <release> to stretch, buster, bullseye, or bookworm as appropriate to your system):

echo "deb https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/apt/debian <release>/libmongocrypt/1.11 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libmongocrypt.list

Package installation

Finally, update the package cache and install the libmongocrypt packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libmongocrypt-dev

.rpm Packages (RedHat, Suse, and Amazon)

RedHat Enterprise Linux

Create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/libmongocrypt.repo with contents:

[libmongocrypt]
name=libmongocrypt repository
baseurl=https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/yum/redhat/$releasever/libmongocrypt/1.11/x86_64
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://pgp.mongodb.com/libmongocrypt.asc

Then install the libmongocrypt packages:

sudo yum install -y libmongocrypt

Amazon Linux 2023

Create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/libmongocrypt.repo with contents:

[libmongocrypt]
name=libmongocrypt repository
baseurl=https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/yum/amazon/2023/libmongocrypt/1.11/x86_64
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://pgp.mongodb.com/libmongocrypt.asc

Then install the libmongocrypt packages:

sudo yum install -y libmongocrypt

Amazon Linux 2

Create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/libmongocrypt.repo with contents:

[libmongocrypt]
name=libmongocrypt repository
baseurl=https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/yum/amazon/2/libmongocrypt/1.11/x86_64
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://pgp.mongodb.com/libmongocrypt.asc

Then install the libmongocrypt packages:

sudo yum install -y libmongocrypt

Amazon Linux

Create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/libmongocrypt.repo with contents:

[libmongocrypt]
name=libmongocrypt repository
baseurl=https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/yum/amazon/2013.03/libmongocrypt/1.11/x86_64
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://pgp.mongodb.com/libmongocrypt.asc

Then install the libmongocrypt packages:

sudo yum install -y libmongocrypt

Suse

First, import the public key used to sign the package repositories:

sudo rpm --import https://pgp.mongodb.com/libmongocrypt.asc

Second, add the repository (be sure to change <release> to 12 or 15, as appropriate to your system):

sudo zypper addrepo --gpgcheck "https://libmongocrypt.s3.amazonaws.com/zypper/suse/<release>/libmongocrypt/1.11/x86_64" libmongocrypt

Finally, install the libmongocrypt packages:

sudo zypper -n install libmongocrypt