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=head1 NAME

X509_new, X509_free, X509_up_ref - X509 certificate ASN1 allocation functions

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 #include <openssl/x509.h>

 X509 *X509_new(void);
 void X509_free(X509 *a);
 void X509_up_ref(X509 *a);
 STACK_OF(X509) *X509_chain_up_ref(STACK_OF(X509) *x);

=head1 DESCRIPTION

The X509 ASN1 allocation routines, allocate and free an
X509 structure, which represents an X509 certificate.

X509_new() allocates and initializes a X509 structure with reference count
B<1>.

X509_free() decrements the reference count of B<X509> structure B<a> and
frees it up if the reference count is zero. If B<a> is NULL nothing is done.

X509_up_ref() increments the reference count of B<a>.

X509_chain_up_ref() increases the reference count of all certificates in
chain B<x> and returns a copy of the stack.

=head1 NOTES

The function X509_up_ref() if useful if a certificate structure is being
used by several different operations each of which will free it up after
use: this avoids the need to duplicate the entire certificate structure.

The function X509_chain_up_ref() doesn't just up the reference count of
each certificate it also returns a copy of the stack, using sk_X509_dup(),
but it serves a similar purpose: the returned chain persists after the
original has been freed.

=head1 RETURN VALUES

If the allocation fails, X509_new() returns B<NULL> and sets an error
code that can be obtained by L<ERR_get_error(3)>.
Otherwise it returns a pointer to the newly allocated structure.

X509_free() and X509_up_ref() do not return a value.

X509_chain_up_ref() returns a copy of the stack or B<NULL> if an error
occurred.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<d2i_X509(3)>,
L<ERR_get_error(3)>,
L<X509_CRL_get0_by_serial(3)>,
L<X509_get0_signature(3)>,
L<X509_get_ext_d2i(3)>,
L<X509_get_extension_flags(3)>,
L<X509_get_pubkey(3)>,
L<X509_get_subject_name(3)>,
L<X509_get_version(3)>,
L<X509_NAME_add_entry_by_txt(3)>,
L<X509_NAME_ENTRY_get_object(3)>,
L<X509_NAME_get_index_by_NID(3)>,
L<X509_NAME_print_ex(3)>,
L<X509_sign(3)>,
L<X509V3_get_d2i(3)>,
L<X509_verify_cert(3)>

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