Add a section "NAMING CONVENTIONS".

There is no need to explain well-known acronyms that are widely
used outside OpenSSL, too (like AES, ASN.1, CMS, ECDSA, PKCS...),
but OpenSSL uses plenty of idiosyncratic naming elements that
deserve to be explained (like d2i, ex, get0, ndef, sk, ...).

Requested by jsing@; feedback and OK tb@.

diff --git a/lib/libcrypto/man/crypto.3 b/lib/libcrypto/man/crypto.3
index 6e98f64..598eb30 100644 (file)
--- a/lib/libcrypto/man/crypto.3
+++ b/lib/libcrypto/man/crypto.3
@@ -1,7 +1,24 @@
-.\"    $OpenBSD: crypto.3,v 1.25 2020/06/24 17:00:38 schwarze Exp $
+.\"    $OpenBSD: crypto.3,v 1.26 2021/12/09 15:11:48 schwarze Exp $
 .\"    OpenSSL a9c85cea Nov 11 09:33:55 2016 +0100
 .\"
-.\" This file was written by Ulf Moeller <ulf@openssl.org> and
+.\" This file is a derived work.
+.\" The changes are covered by the following Copyright and license:
+.\"
+.\" Copyright (c) 2021 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
+.\"
+.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
+.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
+.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
+.\"
+.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
+.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
+.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
+.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
+.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
+.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
+.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
+.\"
+.\" The original file was written by Ulf Moeller <ulf@openssl.org> and
 .\" Dr. Stephen Henson <steve@openssl.org>.
 .\" Copyright (c) 2000, 2002 The OpenSSL Project.  All rights reserved.
 .\"
@@ -49,7 +66,7 @@
 .\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
 .\" OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: June 24 2020 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: December 9 2021 $
 .Dt CRYPTO 3
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -139,43 +156,275 @@ include
 .Xr lh_new 3 ,
 and
 .Xr STACK_OF 3 .
+.Sh NAMING CONVENTIONS
+Elements used in the names of API functions include the following:
+.Bl -tag -width Ds
+.It add0
+See
+.Dq set0
+below.
+.It add1
+See
+.Dq set1
+below.
+.It BIO
+basic input and/or output abstraction:
+The function manipulates objects of the idiosyncratic OpenSSL
+.Vt BIO
+object type.
+See
+.Xr BIO_new 3 .
+.It bio
+The function uses a
+.Vt BIO
+object for input or output.
+In many cases, simpler variants of the function are available
+that operate directly on
+.In stdio.h
+.Vt FILE
+objects or directly in RAM, usually using byte arrays.
+.It BIO_f_
+filter BIO:
+The function returns a pointer to a static built-in object that,
+when passed to
+.Xr BIO_new 3 ,
+results in the creation of a BIO object that can write data to
+and/or read data from another
+.Vt BIO
+object.
+.It BIO_s_
+source and/or sink BIO:
+The function returns a pointer to a static built-in object that,
+when passed to
+.Xr BIO_new 3 ,
+results in the creation of a BIO object
+that can write data to an external destination
+and/or read data from an external source,
+for example a file descriptor or object, a memory buffer, or the network.
+.It BN
+big number:
+The function operates on
+.Vt BIGNUM
+objects representing integer numbers of variable, almost unlimited size.
+See
+.Xr BN_new 3 .
+.It cb
+callback:
+The function takes or returns a function pointer
+that is called by API functions from inside the library.
+The function pointed to may be defined by the application program.
+In some cases, API functions with
+.Dq cb
+in their name may return function pointers to internal functions
+defined inside the library that are not API functions.
+The element
+.Dq cb
+is also used in the names of some function pointer datatypes
+declared with
+.Sy typedef .
+In a small number of cases, the all caps form
+.Dq CB
+is used with the same meaning.
+.It CTX
+context:
+The function operates on a wrapper object around another object.
+The purposes and properties of such
+.Dq CTX
+wrapper objects vary wildly depending on the objects in question.
+A few function names use the lower case form
+.Dq ctx
+in the same sense.
+.It d2i
+DER to internal:
+The function decodes input conforming to ASN.1 basic encoding rules (BER)
+and either stores the result in an existing object
+or in a newly allocated object.
+The latter is usually preferable because
+creating a new object is more robust and less error prone.
+In spite of the name, the input usually does not need to conform to ASN.1
+distinguished encoding rules (DER), which are more restrictive than BER.
+.It EVP
+digital EnVeloPe library:
+See
+.Xr evp 3 .
+.It ex
+This name element is used for two completely unrelated purposes.
 .Pp
-Some of the newer functions follow a naming convention using the numbers
-.Sq 0
-and
-.Sq 1 .
-For example consider the names of these functions:
+extended version:
+The function is similar to an older function without the
+.Dq ex
+in its name, but takes one or more additional arguments
+in order to make it more versatile.
+In several cases, the older version is now deprecated.
 .Pp
-.Ft int
-.Fo X509_CRL_add0_revoked
-.Fa "X509_CRL *crl"
-.Fa "X509_REVOKED *rev"
-.Fc
-.br
-.Ft int
-.Fo X509_add1_trust_object
-.Fa "X509 *x"
-.Fa "ASN1_OBJECT *obj"
-.Fc
+extra data:
+Some object types support storing additional, application-specific data
+inside objects in addition to the data the object is designed to hold.
+The function sets, retrieves, or prepares for using such extra data.
+Related function names usually contain
+.Dq ex_data
+or
+.Dq ex_new_index .
+See
+.Xr CRYPTO_set_ex_data 3 .
+.It fp
+file pointer:
+The function takes a
+.Vt FILE *
+argument.
+Usually, the function is a variant of another function taking a
+.Vt BIO *
+argument instead.
+.It i2d
+internal to DER:
+The function encodes an object passed as an argument
+according to ASN.1 distinguished encoding rules (DER).
+There are a few rare excpetions of functions that have
+.Dq i2d
+in their name but produce output anyway
+that only conforms to ASN.1 basic encoding rules (BER) and not to DER.
+.It get0
+The function returns an internal pointer
+owned by the object passed as an argument.
+The returned pointer must not be freed by the calling code.
+It will be freed automatically
+when the object owning the pointer will be freed.
+.It get1
+The function returns a copy of a sub-object
+of an object passed as an argument.
+The caller is responsible for freeing the returned object
+when it is no longer needed.
 .Pp
-The
-.Sq 0
-version uses the supplied structure pointer directly in the parent and
-it will be freed up when the parent is freed.
-In the above example
-.Fa crl
-would be freed but
-.Fa rev
-would not.
+If the object type is reference counted, usually the reference count
+is incremented instead of copying the object.
+Consequently, modifying the returned object may still impact all
+objects containing references to it.
+The caller is responsible for freeing the returned object
+when it is no longer needed; for reference-counted objects still
+referenced elsewhere, this will merely decrement the reference count.
+.It get
+Functions containing
+.Dq get
+in their name without a following digit may behave in
+.Dq get0
+or, more rarely, in
+.Dq get1
+style.
+To find out which is the case, refer to the individual manual pages.
+.It lh
+linear hash:
+The function manipulates a dynamic hash table.
+See
+.Xr lh_new 3 .
+.It md
+message digest.
+Some function names use the all caps form
+.Dq MD
+in the same sense.
+.It meth
+The function manipulates an object holding a function table.
+Usually, such function tables allow the application program
+to implement additional cryptographic or I/O algorithms
+and to use them with the same high-level API functions as the
+algorithms provided by the library itself, or to replace the
+implementations of algorithms provided by the library with
+custom implementations provided by the application program.
+Some API functions use the name elements
+.Dq method
+or
+.Dq METHOD
+in the same sense.
+See also the
+.Dq cb
+entry in the present list.
+.It ndef
+indefinite length form:
+The function encodes according to ASN.1 basic encoding rules (BER)
+using the indefinite length form.
+Even if the function name also includes
+.Dq i2d ,
+the output does not conform to ASN.1 distinguished encoding rules (DER).
+See
+.Xr ASN1_item_ndef_i2d 3 .
+Some function names contain the all caps version
+.Dq NDEF
+with the same meaning.
+.It nid
+numerical identifier:
+A non-standard, LibreSSL-specific
+.Vt int
+number associated with an ASN.1 object identifier.
+In several cases, the all caps form
+.Dq NID
+is used in the same sense.
+See
+.Xr OBJ_nid2obj 3 .
+.It obj
+This name element and its all caps form
+.Dq OBJ
+usually refer to ASN.1 object identifiers represented by the
+.Vt ASN1_OBJECT
+data type.
+See
+.Xr ASN1_OBJECT_new 3 .
+.It PKEY
+In most cases, this name element and its lower case form
+.Dq pkey
+mean
+.Dq private key ,
+but for both forms, there are some cases where they mean
+.Dq public key
+instead.
+.It set0
+The function transfers ownership of a pointer passed as an argument
+to an object passed as another argument,
+by storing the pointer inside the object.
+The transferred pointer must not be freed by the calling code.
+It will be freed automatically
+when the object now owning the pointer will be freed.
+.It set1
+The function copies the content of one object passed as an argument
+into another object also passed as an argument.
+When the calling code no longer needs the copied object,
+it can free that object.
 .Pp
-The
-.Sq 1
-function uses a copy of the supplied structure pointer (or in some cases
-increases its link count) in the parent and so both
-.Pf ( Fa x
-and
-.Fa obj
-above) should be freed up.
+In some cases, if the object to be copied is reference counted,
+the function does not actually copy the object but merely increments
+its reference count and stores the pointer to it in the other object.
+When the calling code no longer needs its original pointer to
+the now inner object, it can free the original pointer, thus
+decrementing the reference count of the inner object
+and transferring ownership of the inner object to the outer object.
+The inner object will then be freed automatically
+when the outer object is freed later on.
+.It set
+Functions containing
+.Dq set
+in their name without a following digit may behave in
+.Dq set0
+or, more rarely, in
+.Dq set1
+style.
+To find out which is the case, refer to the individual manual pages.
+.It sk
+stack:
+The function manipulates a variable-sized array of pointers
+in the idiosyncratic style described in
+.Xr OPENSSL_sk_new 3 .
+.It TS
+X.509 time-stamp protocol:
+See
+.Xr TS_REQ_new 3 .
+.It up_ref
+The function increments the reference count of the argument by one.
+Only a minority of object types support reference counting.
+For those that do, if the reference count is greater than one,
+the corresponding
+.Dq free
+function reverses the effect of one call to the
+.Dq up_ref
+function rather than freeing the object.
+.El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr openssl 1 ,
 .Xr ssl 3