NAME
BN_CTX_new,
BN_CTX_free —
allocate and free BN_CTX
structures
SYNOPSIS
#include
<openssl/bn.h>
BN_CTX *
BN_CTX_new(void);
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_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(). If
c is a NULL pointer, no action
occurs.
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).
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
BN_CTX_new() and
BN_CTX_free() first appeared in SSLeay 0.5.1 and
have been available since OpenBSD 2.4.