xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man3/BN_CTX_new.pod (revision 3cbb4cc200f8a0ad7ed08233425ea54524a21f1c)
1=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5BN_CTX_new, BN_CTX_secure_new, BN_CTX_free - allocate and free BN_CTX structures
6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9 #include <openssl/bn.h>
10
11 BN_CTX *BN_CTX_new(void);
12
13 BN_CTX *BN_CTX_secure_new(void);
14
15 void BN_CTX_free(BN_CTX *c);
16
17=head1 DESCRIPTION
18
19A B<BN_CTX> is a structure that holds B<BIGNUM> temporary variables used by
20library functions. Since dynamic memory allocation to create B<BIGNUM>s
21is rather expensive when used in conjunction with repeated subroutine
22calls, the B<BN_CTX> structure is used.
23
24BN_CTX_new() allocates and initializes a B<BN_CTX> structure.
25BN_CTX_secure_new() allocates and initializes a B<BN_CTX> structure
26but uses the secure heap (see L<CRYPTO_secure_malloc(3)>) to hold the
27B<BIGNUM>s.
28
29BN_CTX_free() frees the components of the B<BN_CTX> and the structure itself.
30Since BN_CTX_start() is required in order to obtain B<BIGNUM>s from the
31B<BN_CTX>, in most cases BN_CTX_end() must be called before the B<BN_CTX> may
32be freed by BN_CTX_free().  If B<c> is NULL, nothing is done.
33
34A given B<BN_CTX> must only be used by a single thread of execution.  No
35locking is performed, and the internal pool allocator will not properly handle
36multiple threads of execution.
37
38=head1 RETURN VALUES
39
40BN_CTX_new() and BN_CTX_secure_new() return a pointer to the B<BN_CTX>.
41If the allocation fails,
42they return B<NULL> and sets an error code that can be obtained by
43L<ERR_get_error(3)>.
44
45BN_CTX_free() has no return values.
46
47=head1 REMOVED FUNCTIONALITY
48
49 void BN_CTX_init(BN_CTX *c);
50
51BN_CTX_init() is no longer available as of OpenSSL 1.1.0. Applications should
52replace use of BN_CTX_init with BN_CTX_new instead:
53
54 BN_CTX *ctx;
55 ctx = BN_CTX_new();
56 if (!ctx)
57     /* error */
58 ...
59 BN_CTX_free(ctx);
60
61=head1 SEE ALSO
62
63L<ERR_get_error(3)>, L<BN_add(3)>,
64L<BN_CTX_start(3)>
65
66=head1 HISTORY
67
68BN_CTX_init() was removed in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
69
70=head1 COPYRIGHT
71
72Copyright 2000-2017 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
73
74Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License").  You may not use
75this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
76in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
77L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
78
79=cut
80