What is openssl.cnf for?

[Timothy Murphy]

I'm trying to work out if /etc/pki/tls/openssl.cnf
is actually used, and if so how one should edit it.
The file provided with Fedora says it is an "example",
and says, inter alia,
dir = ../../CA # Where everything is kept
although in my case at least this directory is empty.

I glanced through openssl documentation,
but did not see any mention of this particular file.

Perhaps there is some document that would explain to me
the purpose of this file?

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin