libressl-BN_CTX_new(3)

libressl-BN_CTX_new3

Allocate and free bn_ctx structures

Usage

Crypto Library (libcrypto, -lcrypto)

#include <openssl/bn.h>

BN_CTX *

BN_CTX_new(void);

void

BN_CTX_free(BN_CTX *c);

Overview

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).

History

BN_CTX_new() and BN_CTX_free() first appeared in SSLeay 0.5.1 and have been available since OpenBSD 2.4.

From libressl 4.4.0-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.