xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man3/X509_new.pod (revision ba3c1f5972d7b90feb6e6da47905ff2757e0fe57)
1=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5X509_new, X509_new_ex,
6X509_free, X509_up_ref,
7X509_chain_up_ref - X509 certificate ASN1 allocation functions
8
9=head1 SYNOPSIS
10
11 #include <openssl/x509.h>
12
13 X509 *X509_new(void);
14 X509 *X509_new_ex(OSSL_LIB_CTX *libctx, const char *propq);
15 void X509_free(X509 *a);
16 int X509_up_ref(X509 *a);
17 STACK_OF(X509) *X509_chain_up_ref(STACK_OF(X509) *x);
18
19=head1 DESCRIPTION
20
21The X509 ASN1 allocation routines, allocate and free an
22X509 structure, which represents an X509 certificate.
23
24X509_new_ex() allocates and initializes a X509 structure with a
25library context of I<libctx>, property query of I<propq> and a reference
26count of B<1>. Many X509 functions such as X509_check_purpose(), and
27X509_verify() use this library context to select which providers supply the
28fetched algorithms (SHA1 is used internally). This created X509 object can then
29be used when loading binary data using d2i_X509().
30
31X509_new() is similar to X509_new_ex() but sets the library context
32and property query to NULL. This results in the default (NULL) library context
33being used for any X509 operations requiring algorithm fetches.
34
35X509_free() decrements the reference count of B<X509> structure B<a> and
36frees it up if the reference count is zero. If B<a> is NULL nothing is done.
37
38X509_up_ref() increments the reference count of B<a>.
39
40X509_chain_up_ref() increases the reference count of all certificates in
41chain B<x> and returns a copy of the stack, or an empty stack if B<a> is NULL.
42
43=head1 NOTES
44
45The function X509_up_ref() if useful if a certificate structure is being
46used by several different operations each of which will free it up after
47use: this avoids the need to duplicate the entire certificate structure.
48
49The function X509_chain_up_ref() doesn't just up the reference count of
50each certificate. It also returns a copy of the stack, using sk_X509_dup(),
51but it serves a similar purpose: the returned chain persists after the
52original has been freed.
53
54=head1 RETURN VALUES
55
56If the allocation fails, X509_new() returns NULL and sets an error
57code that can be obtained by L<ERR_get_error(3)>.
58Otherwise it returns a pointer to the newly allocated structure.
59
60X509_up_ref() returns 1 for success and 0 for failure.
61
62X509_chain_up_ref() returns a copy of the stack or NULL if an error occurred.
63
64=head1 SEE ALSO
65
66L<d2i_X509(3)>,
67L<ERR_get_error(3)>,
68L<X509_CRL_get0_by_serial(3)>,
69L<X509_get0_signature(3)>,
70L<X509_get_ext_d2i(3)>,
71L<X509_get_extension_flags(3)>,
72L<X509_get_pubkey(3)>,
73L<X509_get_subject_name(3)>,
74L<X509_get_version(3)>,
75L<X509_NAME_add_entry_by_txt(3)>,
76L<X509_NAME_ENTRY_get_object(3)>,
77L<X509_NAME_get_index_by_NID(3)>,
78L<X509_NAME_print_ex(3)>,
79L<X509_sign(3)>,
80L<X509V3_get_d2i(3)>,
81L<X509_verify_cert(3)>
82
83=head1 HISTORY
84
85The function X509_new_ex() was added in OpenSSL 3.0.
86
87=head1 COPYRIGHT
88
89Copyright 2002-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
90
91Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
92this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
93in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
94L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
95
96=cut
97