GNUTLS_X509_PRIVKEY_EXPORT2_PKCS8(3)

💖 gnutls_x509_privkey_export2_pkcs8 💖

okay bestie, so this one lives in the gnutls manual, and it's literally the glow-up moment for your private key — you're shipping it out as a PKCS8 structure. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

gnutls_x509_privkey_export2_pkcs8 — an API function, and yeah that's the whole name, no notes 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <gnutls/x509.h>

int gnutls_x509_privkey_export2_pkcs8(gnutls_x509_privkey_t key,
gnutls_x509_crt_fmt_t format, const char * password, unsigned int flags,
gnutls_datum_t * out);

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• gnutls_x509_privkey_t key — bestie this is literally holding the key. the whole point. main character energy 🔑
• gnutls_x509_crt_fmt_t format — the format of the output params. it's one of PEM or DER, pick your fighter ✨
• const char * password — the password that will be used to encrypt the key. guard it with your life, fr fr 🔒
• unsigned int flags — an ORed sequence of gnutls_pkcs_encrypt_flags_t. stack 'em up, no cap
• gnutls_datum_t * out — this is gonna contain your private key, PEM or DER encoded. the lil delivery box 🎁

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💫 DESCRIPTION 💫

so what does it actually do? it exports the private key to a PKCS8 structure. both RSA and DSA keys can be exported — equal opportunity slay. for DSA keys we use PKCS 11 definitions. and if the flags do not specify the encryption cipher, then the default 3DES (PBES2) will be used. like, it's giving defaults but make it secure 💀

the password can be either ASCII or UTF-8 in the default PBES2 encryption schemas, or ASCII for the PKCS12 schemas. so like, know which schema you're in before you go typing emoji into a password field, iykyk 😭

the output buffer is allocated using gnutls_malloc(). so yes, that's yours to free later, don't just leave it lying around 🙈

and if the structure is PEM encoded, it will have a header of "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY" or "BEGIN PRIVATE KEY" if encryption is not used. look at that header. iconic. periodt 💖

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⭐ RETURNS ⭐

in case of failure a negative error code will be returned, and 0 on success. that 0 is the little green flag you're looking for 🫶

Since 3.1.3 — so this has been serving looks since way back, we love longevity 👑

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🌈 REPORTING BUGS 🌈

found a bug? not the vibe. report bugs to <bugs@gnutls.org>.

home page: https://www.gnutls.org

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 2001-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc., and others.

copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. so like, go off, just keep the receipt 🧾✨

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

the full documentation for gnutls is maintained as a Texinfo manual. if the /usr/share/doc/gnutls/ directory does not contain the HTML form, visit:

https://www.gnutls.org/manual/

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and that's the whole page bestie, no crumbs left 💅 this was gnutls version 3.8.13, and yeah the date lines up with that 2001-2023 copyright era, so consider yourself fully caught up 🎀💖🦋