I2D_PKCS7_BIO_STREAM(3)

📦 version 4.4.0, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling

💅 I2D_PKCS7_BIO_STREAM(3) — the libcrypto manual page, but make it make sense

okay bestie, so this is a page from the library "libcrypto" manual set, and honestly? it's short, it's sweet, and it's about shoving a PKCS7 structure out in BER format. let's get into it ✨

✨ NAME ✨

i2d_PKCS7_bio_stream — output a PKCS7 structure in BER format 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

first things first, you gotta pull in the header, it's giving very "step one of every C program ever":

#include <openssl/pkcs7.h>

and here's the actual function signature, write it down bestie:

int
i2d_PKCS7_bio_stream(BIO *out, PKCS7 *p7, BIO *data, int flags);

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so i2d_PKCS7_bio_stream() outputs a PKCS7 structure in BER format. that's the whole vibe.

other than that one tiny detail, it's literally identical to SMIME_write_PKCS7(3) — no cap, same function energy. and if you wanna think of it another way? it's effectively a version of i2d_PKCS7_bio(3) that supports streaming. so it's the streaming-enabled glow-up of a function you already know. 💅

🔥 RETURN VALUES 🔥

  • 1 — slay, it worked, success ✨
  • 0 — nope, failure, it's giving flop 😭

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read these too, they're all cousins of this function, iykyk:

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

i2d_PKCS7_bio_stream() first appeared in OpenSSL 1.0.0, and it's been available since OpenBSD 4.9. so it's been around a while. vintage, honestly. 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

okay so this is my favorite part. the prefix "i2d" is arguably wrong because the function outputs BER format. that's it. that's the bug. the name is a little bit of a liar. 🙈

it's giving "who named this" energy. noted, documented, moving on.

Debian edition, dated June 8, 2025 — that's the source, version and date info, bestie, consider it signed off with a 🎀 and a 💖. byeee!

📦 where this page comes from