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BN_new(3)                           OpenSSL                          BN_new(3)



NAME
       BN_new, BN_secure_new, BN_clear, BN_free, BN_clear_free - allocate and
       free BIGNUMs

LIBRARY
       libcrypto, -lcrypto

SYNOPSIS
        #include <openssl/bn.h>

        BIGNUM *BN_new(void);

        BIGNUM *BN_secure_new(void);

        void BN_clear(BIGNUM *a);

        void BN_free(BIGNUM *a);

        void BN_clear_free(BIGNUM *a);

DESCRIPTION
       BN_new() allocates and initializes a BIGNUM structure.  BN_secure_new()
       does the same except that the secure heap OPENSSL_secure_malloc(3) is
       used to store the value.

       BN_clear() is used to destroy sensitive data such as keys when they are
       no longer needed. It erases the memory used by a and sets it to the
       value 0.  If a is NULL, nothing is done.

       BN_free() frees the components of the BIGNUM, and if it was created by
       BN_new(), also the structure itself. BN_clear_free() additionally
       overwrites the data before the memory is returned to the system.  If a
       is NULL, nothing is done.

RETURN VALUES
       BN_new() and BN_secure_new() return a pointer to the BIGNUM initialised
       to the value 0.  If the allocation fails, they return NULL and set an
       error code that can be obtained by ERR_get_error(3).

       BN_clear(), BN_free() and BN_clear_free() have no return values.

SEE ALSO
       ERR_get_error(3), OPENSSL_secure_malloc(3)

HISTORY
       BN_init() was removed in OpenSSL 1.1.0; use BN_new() instead.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2000-2017 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

       Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
       this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
       in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
       <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.



3.0.12                            2023-05-07                         BN_new(3)