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Diffstat (limited to 'openssl/doc/crypto/BN_num_bytes.pod')
-rw-r--r-- | openssl/doc/crypto/BN_num_bytes.pod | 57 |
1 files changed, 57 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/openssl/doc/crypto/BN_num_bytes.pod b/openssl/doc/crypto/BN_num_bytes.pod new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a6a2e3f81 --- /dev/null +++ b/openssl/doc/crypto/BN_num_bytes.pod @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +=pod + +=head1 NAME + +BN_num_bits, BN_num_bytes, BN_num_bits_word - get BIGNUM size + +=head1 SYNOPSIS + + #include <openssl/bn.h> + + int BN_num_bytes(const BIGNUM *a); + + int BN_num_bits(const BIGNUM *a); + + int BN_num_bits_word(BN_ULONG w); + +=head1 DESCRIPTION + +BN_num_bytes() returns the size of a B<BIGNUM> in bytes. + +BN_num_bits_word() returns the number of significant bits in a word. +If we take 0x00000432 as an example, it returns 11, not 16, not 32. +Basically, except for a zero, it returns I<floor(log2(w))+1>. + +BN_num_bits() returns the number of significant bits in a B<BIGNUM>, +following the same principle as BN_num_bits_word(). + +BN_num_bytes() is a macro. + +=head1 RETURN VALUES + +The size. + +=head1 NOTES + +Some have tried using BN_num_bits() on individual numbers in RSA keys, +DH keys and DSA keys, and found that they don't always come up with +the number of bits they expected (something like 512, 1024, 2048, +...). This is because generating a number with some specific number +of bits doesn't always set the highest bits, thereby making the number +of I<significant> bits a little lower. If you want to know the "key +size" of such a key, either use functions like RSA_size(), DH_size() +and DSA_size(), or use BN_num_bytes() and multiply with 8 (although +there's no real guarantee that will match the "key size", just a lot +more probability). + +=head1 SEE ALSO + +L<bn(3)|bn(3)>, L<DH_size(3)|DH_size(3)>, L<DSA_size(3)|DSA_size(3)>, +L<RSA_size(3)|RSA_size(3)> + +=head1 HISTORY + +BN_num_bytes(), BN_num_bits() and BN_num_bits_word() are available in +all versions of SSLeay and OpenSSL. + +=cut |