libressl-ERR_load_crypto_strings(3)

libressl-ERR_load_crypto_strings3

Load and free openssl error strings

Usage

Crypto Library (libcrypto, -lcrypto)

#include <openssl/err.h>

void

ERR_load_crypto_strings(void);

void

ERR_free_strings(void);

SSL Library (libssl, -lssl) libcrypto

#include <openssl/ssl.h>

void

SSL_load_error_strings(void);

Overview

These functions are deprecated. It is never useful for any application program to call any of them explicitly. The library automatically calls them internally whenever needed.

ERR_load_crypto_strings() registers the error strings for all crypto(3) functions. SSL_load_error_strings() does the same, but also registers the ssl(3) error strings.

If the error strings were already loaded before, no action occurs.

ERR_free_strings() frees all previously loaded error strings.

History

ERR_load_crypto_strings() and SSL_load_error_strings() first appeared in SSLeay 0.4.4. ERR_free_strings() first appeared in SSLeay 0.5.1. These functions been available since OpenBSD 2.4.

Bugs

Even though the error strings are already compiled into the object code of the library as static strings, these functions store them again using dynamically allocated memory on the heap. That may fail if insufficient memory is available, but these functions do not report such errors. Instead, they fail silently, possibly having registered none or only a part of the strings requested.

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