HP Open Source Security for OpenVMS Volume 2: HP SSL for OpenVMS > CRYPTO Application Programming Interface (API) Reference

BN_new

 » Table of Contents

 » Index

spacerspacerspacer
spacer
spacer
  		 
 

NAME

BN_new, BN_init, BN_clear, BN_free, BN_clear_free — allocate and free BIGNUMs

Synopsis

#include <openssl/bn.h> 
BIGNUM
*BN_new(void); 
void BN_init(BIGNUM *); 
void
BN_clear(BIGNUM *a); 
void BN_free(BIGNUM *a); 
void
BN_clear_free(BIGNUM *a);

DESCRIPTION

BN_new() allocated and initializes a BIGNUM structure. BN_init() initializes an existing uninitialized BIGNUM.

BN_clear() is used to destroy sensitive data such as keys when they are no longer needed. It erases the memory used by a and sets it to the value 0.

BN_free() frees the components of the BIGNUM, and if it was created by BN_new(), also the structure itself. BN_clear_free() additionally overwrites the data before the memory is returned to the system.

RETURN VALUES

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

BN_init(), BN_clear(), BN_free() and BN_clear_free() have no return values.

SEE ALSO

bn(3), ERR_get_error(3)

HISTORY

BN_new(), BN_clear(), BN_free() and BN_clear_free() are available in all versions on SSLeay and OpenSSL. BN_init() was added in SSLeay 0.9.1b.



BN_mod_mul_reciprocal
  		 


BN_num_bits