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ASN1_ITEM_NEW(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual ASN1_ITEM_NEW(3) NAME ASN1_item_new, ASN1_item_free - generic ASN.1 value constructor and destructor SYNOPSIS #include <openssl/asn1.h> ASN1_VALUE * ASN1_item_new(const ASN1_ITEM *it); void ASN1_item_free(ASN1_VALUE *val_in, const ASN1_ITEM *it); DESCRIPTION ASN1_item_new() allocates and initializes an empty ASN.1 value of the type described by the global static object it. If the item type described by it is reference counted, ASN1_item_free() decrements the reference count of val_in. Otherwise, or if the reference count reaches 0, ASN1_item_free() frees val_in, assuming that it is of the type described by it. If the true type of val_in fails to match the specified it, buffer overflows and segmentation faults are likely to occur. It is not possible to recover the type of an ASN1_VALUE object by inspecting it; the type always needs to be remembered separately. ASN1_VALUE is an incomplete type, and pointers to it always require casting to the correct complete type before they can be dereferenced. For all practical purposes, a pointer to ASN1_VALUE is equivalent to a void pointer. Depending on it, there are more than 150 different types that ASN1_item_new() may return. Most of them are pointers to structures or pointers to arrays of structures, but there are a few exceptions, for example: If it is ASN1_NULL_it, ASN1_item_new() returns a specific invalid pointer representing the unique ASN1_NULL object. If it is LONG_it, ASN1_item_new() does not return a pointer at all, but a long value cast to ASN1_VALUE *. RETURN VALUES The ASN1_item_new() function returns the new ASN1_VALUE object if successful; otherwise NULL is returned and an error code can be retrieved with ERR_get_error(3). SEE ALSO ASN1_get_object(3), ASN1_item_d2i(3), ASN1_item_digest(3), ASN1_item_pack(3), ASN1_item_sign(3), ASN1_item_verify(3), ASN1_NULL_new(3), ASN1_TYPE_new(3), d2i_ASN1_NULL(3), OBJ_nid2obj(3) HISTORY ASN1_item_new() and ASN1_item_free() first appeared in OpenSSL 0.9.7 and have been available since OpenBSD 3.2. BUGS The ASN1_VALUE type compromises type safety and invites programming mistakes that will typically have severe consequences. FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 January 12, 2022 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8