BNnew(3) OpenSSL BNnew(3)

NAME
       BNnew, BNinit, BNclear, BNfree, BNclearfree - allocate and free
       BIGNUMs

SYNOPSIS
        #include 

        BIGNUM *BNnew(void);

        void BNinit(BIGNUM *);

        void BNclear(BIGNUM *a);

        void BNfree(BIGNUM *a);

        void BNclearfree(BIGNUM *a);

DESCRIPTION
       BNnew() allocated and initializes a BBIIGGNNUUMM structure. BNinit()
       initializes an existing uninitialized BBIIGGNNUUMM.

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

       BNfree() frees the components of the BBIIGGNNUUMM, and if it was created by
       BNnew(), also the structure itself. BNclearfree() additionally
       overwrites the data before the memory is returned to the system.

RETURN VALUES
       BNnew() returns a pointer to the BBIIGGNNUUMM. If the allocation fails, it
       returns NNUULLLL and sets an error code that can be obtained by
       ERRgeterror(3).

       BNinit(), BNclear(), BNfree() and BNclearfree() have no return
       values.

SEE ALSO
       bn(3), ERRgeterror(3)

HISTORY       BNnew(), BNclear(), BNfree() and BNclearfree() are available in
       all versions on SSLeay and OpenSSL.  BNinit() was added in SSLeay
       0.9.1b.



0.9.7l                            2002-09-25                         BNnew(3)