freebsd/lib/libmd/ripemd.3

.\"
.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.\" "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):
.\" <phk@login.dkuug.dk> wrote this file.  As long as you retain this notice you
.\" can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think
.\" this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.   Poul-Henning Kamp
.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.\"
.\" 	From: Id: mdX.3,v 1.14 1999/02/11 20:31:49 wollman Exp
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd February 26, 1999
.Dt RIPEMD 3
.Os FreeBSD 4.0
.Sh NAME
.Nm RIPEMD160_Init ,
.Nm RIPEMD160_Update ,
.Nm RIPEMD160_Final ,
.Nm RIPEMD160_End ,
.Nm RIPEMD160_File ,
.Nm RIPEMD160_Data
.Nd calculate the RIPEMD160 message digest
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libmd
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
.Fd #include <ripemd.h>
.Ft void
.Fn RIPEMD160_Init "RIPEMD160_CTX *context"
.Ft void
.Fn RIPEMD160_Update "RIPEMD160_CTX *context" "const unsigned char *data" "unsigned int len"
.Ft void
.Fn RIPEMD160_Final "unsigned char digest[20]" "RIPEMD160_CTX *context"
.Ft "char *"
.Fn RIPEMD160_End "RIPEMD160_CTX *context" "char *buf"
.Ft "char *"
.Fn RIPEMD160_File "const char *filename" "char *buf"
.Ft "char *"
.Fn RIPEMD160_Data "const unsigned char *data" "unsigned int len" "char *buf"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Li RIPEMD160_
functions calculate a 160-bit cryptographic checksum (digest)
for any number of input bytes.  A cryptographic checksum is a one-way
hash function; that is, it is computationally impractical to find
the input corresponding to a particular output.  This net result is 
a ``fingerprint'' of the input-data, which doesn't disclose the actual
input.
.Pp
The
.Fn RIPEMD160_Init  ,
.Fn RIPEMD160_Update ,
and
.Fn RIPEMD160_Final
functions are the core functions.  Allocate an RIPEMD160_CTX, initialize it with
.Fn RIPEMD160_Init ,
run over the data with
.Fn RIPEMD160_Update ,
and finally extract the result using
.Fn RIPEMD160_Final .
.Pp
.Fn RIPEMD160_End
is a wrapper for
.Fn RIPEMD160_Final
which converts the return value to a 41-character
(including the terminating '\e0')
.Tn ASCII
string which represents the 160 bits in hexadecimal.
.Pp
.Fn RIPEMD160_File
calculates the digest of a file, and uses 
.Fn RIPEMD160_End
to return the result.
If the file cannot be opened, a null pointer is returned.
.Fn RIPEMD160_Data
calculates the digest of a chunk of data in memory, and uses
.Fn RIPEMD160_End
to return the result.
.Pp
When using
.Fn RIPEMD160_End ,
.Fn RIPEMD160_File ,
or
.Fn RIPEMD160_Data ,
the 
.Ar buf
argument can be a null pointer, in which case the returned string
is allocated with
.Xr malloc 3
and subsequently must be explicitly deallocated using
.Xr free 3
after use.
If the 
.Ar buf
argument is non-null it must point to at least 41 characters of buffer space.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr md2 3 ,
.Xr md4 3 ,
.Xr md5 3 ,
.Xr sha 3
.Sh AUTHORS
The core hash routines were implemented by Eric Young based on the
published
.Tn RIPEMD160
specification.
.Sh HISTORY
These functions appeared in
.Fx 4.0 .
.Sh BUGS
No method is known to exist which finds two files having the same hash value,
nor to find a file with a specific hash value.
There is on the other hand no guarantee that such a method doesn't exist.