BN_CTX

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HP Open Source Security for OpenVMS Volume 2:...

CRYPTO Application Programming Interface (API)...

BN_copy

BN_CTX_start

BN_CTX_new

Description
Return Values
See Also
History

NAME

BN_CTX_new, BN_CTX_init, BN_CTX_free - allocate and free BN_CTX structures

Synopsis

#include <openssl/bn.h> BN_CTX *BN_CTX_new(void); void BN_CTX_init(BN_CTX *c); void BN_CTX_free(BN_CTX *c);

DESCRIPTION

A BN_CTX is a structure that holds BIGNUM temporary variables used by library functions. Since dynamic memory allocation to create BIGNUMs is rather expensive when used in conjunction with repeated subroutine calls, the BN_CTX structure is used.

BN_CTX_new() allocates and initializes a BN_CTX structure. BN_CTX_init() initializes an existing uninitialized BN_CTX.

BN_CTX_free() frees the components of the BN_CTX, and if it was created by BN_CTX_new(), also the structure itself. If BN_CTX_start(3) has been used on the BN_CTX, BN_CTX_end(3) must be called before the BN_CTX may be freed by BN_CTX_free().

RETURN VALUES

BN_CTX_new() returns a pointer to the BN_CTX. If the allocation fails, it returns NULL and sets an error code that can be obtained by ERR_get_error(3) .

BN_CTX_init() and BN_CTX_free() have no return values.