ERR_REMOVE_STATE(3)

💅 ERR_REMOVE_STATE(3) — like, the whole page, bestie

okay so this one's from the Library Functions Manual and it's literally called ERR_REMOVE_STATE(3). it's giving "cleanup era" — we're freeing a thread's OpenSSL error queue. no cap. 🧹✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ERR_remove_thread_state, ERR_remove_state — free a thread's OpenSSL error queue

like, the error queue belongs to a thread and we're setting it free. that's the whole vibe. 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

first things first, you gotta be linked against the library “libcrypto” and pull in the header:

#include <openssl/err.h>

then the main character:

void
ERR_remove_thread_state(const CRYPTO_THREADID *tid);

and then the Deprecated: one, she's retired but still hanging around:

void
ERR_remove_state(unsigned long pid);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so ERR_remove_thread_state() frees the error queue that's associated with thread tid. and if tid is NULL? the current thread gets its error queue removed. iconic behaviour, honestly. 💅

here's the part you actually need to remember: error queue data structures are allocated automatically for new threads, which means they must be freed when threads are terminated — otherwise you get a memory leak. and leaks are not the vibe. 😭

bestie. fr fr. free your queues. the data structures don't free themselves.

now, ERR_remove_state() is deprecated and has been replaced by ERR_remove_thread_state(). and because threads in OpenSSL are no longer identified by unsigned long values, any argument you pass to this function is ignored. yep, ignored. deaded. irrelevant. so calling ERR_remove_state() is equivalent to calling ERR_remove_thread_state(NULL). same thing, different font. 🎀

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• ERR(3)

go read that one next, iykyk. 🌈

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

ERR_remove_state() first appeared in SSLeay 0.6.1 and has been available since OpenBSD 2.4. she's been around a minute. 👑

then it was deprecated in OpenSSL 1.0.0 and OpenBSD 4.9 — right when ERR_remove_thread_state() was introduced, and thread IDs were introduced to identify threads instead of unsigned long. glow-up era. 🦋✨

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and that's the page, bestie 💖 — brought to you by Debian, dated June 8, 2025, filed under ERR_REMOVE_STATE(3). go free those queues and slay. 🎀💜