Build and test

This walkthrough takes you from a fresh clone to both forms built and tested, and to a running Windows service that answers its first request. Plan on 10 to 20 minutes the first time; most of that is the OpenSSL build.

Before you begin, install the tools listed in Prerequisites.

Change to the form's directory. From the repository root, the form's .cargo/config.toml doesn't take effect.

cd l4re
cargo test

On Windows, Strawberry Perl must come before any other Perl on the path, for example $env:PATH = "C:\Strawberry\perl\bin;" + $env:PATH.

Each test group ends with test result: ok. Among other things, the tests confirm that the linked OpenSSL provides ML-DSA, that a tampered signature is rejected, and that the test vectors have the real sizes of signatures and ciphertexts.

For the Linux targets:

cd l4re
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu   # cross-compilation

A program built this way runs a demonstration outside L4Re and exits; it doesn't accept requests.

Point the build at the OpenSSL to link against, and build from the win directory:

$env:OPENSSL_DIR = "C:\OpenSSL-3.6"   # your installation directory
cd win
cargo test
cargo build --release

If lib\ contains only static libraries, also set $env:OPENSSL_STATIC = "1". The program ends up in win\target\release\wvds_crypto_service.exe.

.\target\release\wvds_crypto_service.exe --no-tui --single

The startup banner shows the OpenSSL version actually linked, for example OpenSSL 3.5.4 30 Sep 2025. The service then logs Starting gateway: Default Gateway on \\.\pipe\wvds_crypto and waits for connections.

Open a second PowerShell window and ask the service for its status:

$pipe = [System.IO.Pipes.NamedPipeClientStream]::new('.', 'wvds_crypto', 'InOut')
$pipe.Connect(5000)
$utf8 = [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new($false)
$reader = [System.IO.StreamReader]::new($pipe, $utf8)
$writer = [System.IO.StreamWriter]::new($pipe, $utf8)
$writer.NewLine = "`n"; $writer.AutoFlush = $true
$writer.WriteLine('{"operation":"info","request_id":"i1"}')
$reader.ReadLine()
$pipe.Dispose()

The response is a single JSON line with "success":true, "status":"running", and the list of algorithms. To generate keys, sign, and encrypt, see Call the Windows service.

You can recompute the L4Re form's test vectors with any OpenSSL 3.5 or later:

python tools/verify-test-vectors.py l4re/crypto_test_vectors.json "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL\bin\libcrypto-3-x64.dll"

The script reports 8 vectors, 0 failures when every vector checks out. For details, see Verify the test vectors.

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