NAME

keyring: certtostr, pktostr, sktostr, strtocert, strtopk, strtosk - encryption key conversion functions

SYNOPSIS

include "keyring.m"
keyring:= load Keyring Keyring->PATH;

strtocert: fn(s: string)         : ref Certificate;
certtostr: fn(c: ref Certificate): string;
strtopk:   fn(s: string)         : ref PK;
pktostr:   fn(pk: ref PK)        : string;
strtosk:   fn(s: string)         : ref SK;
sktostr:   fn(sk: ref SK)        : string;

DESCRIPTION

Certificates, public keys, and private keys are passed over networks and between applications using a Unicode representation. This collection of functions provide a means to convert adts supplied by the system to and from their portable textual representation. These routines are typically used as part of an I/O package for implementing security.

Strtocert takes a string argument containing a user name, a hash algorithm, a certifying authority and an expiration time. Fields are separated by a newline. The return value is a Certificate. If the string is of improper format, the result is nil.

Certtostr performs the inverse operation: takes the Certificate c and produces a text string suitable for communication over a network.

Strtopk and strtosk take as their arguments a string s representing the public and private keys respectively. S must contain an algorithm name, a user name and the key. Fields are separated by a newline. Strtopk returns a reference to the resulting PK; strtosk returns a reference to the resulting SK. If the format of s is invalid, the result is nil.

Pktostr and sktostr perform the inverse operations: they take a public key (secret key) and produce a printable representation as a string.

SOURCE

/libinterp/keyring.c

KEYRING-CERTTOSTR(2 )

Rev:  Tue Mar 31 02:42:39 GMT 2015