[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1. Introduction

`Libgcrypt' is a library providing cryptographic building blocks.

1.1 Getting Started  How to use this manual.
1.2 Features  A glance at Libgcrypt's features.
1.3 Overview  Overview about the library.


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.1 Getting Started

This manual documents the `Libgcrypt' library application programming interface (API). All functions and data types provided by the library are explained.

The reader is assumed to possess basic knowledge about applied cryptography.

This manual can be used in several ways. If read from the beginning to the end, it gives a good introduction into the library and how it can be used in an application. Forward references are included where necessary. Later on, the manual can be used as a reference manual to get just the information needed about any particular interface of the library. Experienced programmers might want to start looking at the examples at the end of the manual, and then only read up those parts of the interface which are unclear.


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.2 Features

`Libgcrypt' might have a couple of advantages over other libraries doing a similar job.

It's Free Software
Anybody can use, modify, and redistribute it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (see section A. GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE). Note, that some parts (which are not needed on a GNU or GNU/Linux system) are subject to the terms of the GNU General Public License (see section B. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE); please see the README file of the distribution for of list of these parts.

It encapsulates the low level cryptography
`Libgcrypt' provides a high level interface to cryptographic building blocks using an extendable and flexible API.


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.3 Overview

The `Libgcrypt' library is fully thread-safe, where it makes sense to be thread-safe. An exception for thread-safety are some cryptographic functions that modify a certain context stored in handles. If the user really intents to use such functions from different threads on the same handle, he has to take care of the serialisation of such functions himself. If not described otherwise, every function is thread-safe.

Libgcrypt depends on the library `libgpg-error', which contains common error handling related code for GnuPG components.


[ << ] [ >> ]           [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

This document was generated by root on April, 16 2004 using texi2html