libssl.so.0.9.7 disappeared

[Doug Sutherland]

 > The only file resembling a compiled library in /usr/local/ssl/lib
 > is libssl.a. Is libssl.so.0.9.7 a symlink to this file possibly?
 > Bc if so that's what I am missing.

You said you installed this yourself I think ... from source?
Try this, delete the source tree. Extract the openssl package,
and cd into the source tree.

./config --prefix=/usr shared
make
make install

This installs the libs in /usr/lib.
You can specify --prefix=/usr/local if you want.

You want to end up with something like this in /usr/lib:
cd /usr/lib
ls -l libssl*

libssl.a
libssl.so -> libssl.so.0
libsso.so.0 -> libssl.so.0.9.7
libssl.so.0.9.7

Note the symbolic links. They should be make automatically the make
install. They point libssl.so to the actual version libssl.so.0.9.7

You need more than the .a file.
You are missing the .so

   -- Doug