DSA_GENERATE_KEY(3)

📦 version 4.4.0, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling

💖 DSA_GENERATE_KEY(3) 💖

okay so bestie, this one lives in the Library Functions Manual and it's literally the page for DSA_generate_key — yes, the whole entire slay that makes you a DSA key pair ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

DSA_generate_key — generate a DSA key pair, no cap 🔑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

like, pull it in from libcrypto first:

library “libcrypto”
#include <openssl/dsa.h>

int
DSA_generate_key(DSA *a);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so DSA_generate_key() is gonna need a to already be holding DSA parameters — like, that's the vibe check it does first, it's not doing that part for you 🙈

then it generates a whole new key pair and stores it in a->pub_key and a->priv_key. both of them. that's the entire personality of this function and honestly? iconic 👑

⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

  • DSA_generate_key() returns 1 on success 💅
  • or 0 otherwise 😭

and if you got a 0 and you're like "okay but why", the error codes are literally obtainable via ERR_get_error(3) — go ask, she'll tell you 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

(the whole friend group, fr fr 🧚)

💜 HISTORY 💜

so DSA_generate_key() first appeared in SSLeay 0.6.0 and has been available since OpenBSD 2.4 — she's been serving since before most of us were born, we stan a legacy queen 👑

and that's the page!! this little beauty is from Debian, dated June 8, 2025, and yes the footer still says DSA_GENERATE_KEY(3) because we keep the branding consistent 💖✨ bye bestie, go make some keys 🍓

📦 where this page comes from