BIO_S_MEM(3SSL)

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version 4.0.3 · 14 versions

✨ memory BIOs, but make it iconic ✨

okay bestie 💖 this is BIO_S_MEM(3SSL), the OpenSSL manual page for the memory BIO squad. it's the BIO that keeps all your data in RAM instead of yeeting it at a socket, and honestly? it ate. ngl there's a bunch of lore and a couple of live landmines in here, so grab a strawberry 🍓 and let's go 💅

📛 NAME 📛

BIO_s_secmem, BIO_s_dgram_mem, BIO_s_mem, BIO_set_mem_eof_return, BIO_get_mem_data, BIO_set_mem_buf, BIO_get_mem_ptr, BIO_new_mem_buf — that's the whole memory BIO family, that's the entire friend group 🫶

📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

#include <openssl/bio.h>

const BIO_METHOD *BIO_s_mem(void);
const BIO_METHOD *BIO_s_dgram_mem(void);
const BIO_METHOD *BIO_s_secmem(void);

BIO_set_mem_eof_return(BIO *b, int v);
long BIO_get_mem_data(BIO *b, char **pp);
BIO_set_mem_buf(BIO *b, BUF_MEM *bm, int c);
BIO_get_mem_ptr(BIO *b, BUF_MEM **pp);

BIO *BIO_new_mem_buf(const void *buf, int len);

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so first thing first: BIO_s_mem() returns the memory BIO method function. that's your way in, that's the main character right there 💫

a memory BIO is a source/sink BIO that uses memory for its I/O. whatever you write to it gets stored in a BUF_MEM structure, and that structure gets extended as appropriate to accommodate the stored data. it just grows. no cap. it's giving infinite potential ✨

BIO_s_secmem() is like BIO_s_mem() except that the secure heap is used for buffer storage. security girlie behavior 🔐

BIO_s_dgram_mem() is a memory BIO that respects datagram semantics. here's the tea:

a single call to BIO_write(3) will write a single datagram to the memory BIO.
a subsequent call to BIO_read(3) will read the data in that datagram.
that BIO_read(3) call will never return more data than was written in the original BIO_write(3) call, even if there were subsequent BIO_write(3) calls that wrote more datagrams.
each successive call to BIO_read(3) reads the next datagram.
if a BIO_read(3) call supplies a read buffer that is smaller than the size of the datagram, then the read buffer will be completely filled and the remaining data from the datagram will be discarded. gone. deleted. 💀

it is not possible to write a zero length datagram, bestie. calling BIO_write(3) in that case will return 0 and no datagrams will be written. calling BIO_read(3) when there are no datagrams in the BIO to read will return a negative result and the "retry" flags will be set (i.e. calling BIO_should_retry(3) will return true). and a datagram mem BIO will never return true from BIO_eof(3). never ever, periodt.

any data written to a memory BIO can be recalled by reading from it. unless the memory BIO is read only, any data read from it is deleted from the BIO.

memory BIOs except BIO_s_dgram_mem() support BIO_gets() and BIO_puts().

BIO_s_dgram_mem() supports BIO_sendmmsg(3) and BIO_recvmmsg(3) calls, plus calls related to BIO_ADDR and MTU handling, similarly to the BIO_s_dgram_pair(3).

if the BIO_CLOSE flag is set when a memory BIO is freed, then the underlying BUF_MEM structure is also freed. they go down together 🫂

calling BIO_reset() on a read write memory BIO clears any data in it — if the flag BIO_FLAGS_NONCLEAR_RST is not set. otherwise it just restores the read pointer to the state it was just after the last write was performed, and the data can be read again. on a read only BIO it similarly restores the BIO to its original state and the read only data can be read again. rewind era ⏪

BIO_eof() is true if no data is in the BIO.

BIO_ctrl_pending() returns the number of bytes currently stored. counting queen 👑

BIO_set_mem_eof_return() sets the behaviour of memory BIO b when it is empty. details, because the details matter:

if v is zero, then an empty memory BIO will return EOF — that is, it will return zero and BIO_should_retry(b) will be false.
if v is non zero, then it will return v when it is empty and it will set the read retry flag (that is BIO_read_retry(b) is true). to avoid ambiguity with a normal positive return value, v should be set to a negative value, typically -1.
the default behaviour for read-only BIOs is as if BIO_set_mem_eof_return(0) were called.
the default behaviour for read-write BIOs is special: BIO_eof() returns EOF for an empty buffer, while the BIO_read() behaviour remains identical to the case BIO_set_mem_eof_return(-1). this default behaviour is maintained for backward compatibility.
calling this macro will fail for datagram mem BIOs. 🙈

BIO_get_mem_data() sets *pp to a pointer to the start of the memory BIOs data and returns the total amount of data available. it's implemented as a macro. note: the pointer returned by this call is informative, no transfer of ownership of this memory is implied. see notes on BIO_set_close().

BIO_set_mem_buf() sets the internal BUF_MEM structure to bm and sets the close flag to c — that is, c should be either BIO_CLOSE or BIO_NOCLOSE. it is a macro.

BIO_get_mem_ptr() places the underlying BUF_MEM structure in *pp. it is a macro.

BIO_new_mem_buf() creates a memory BIO using len bytes of data at buf. if len is -1, then the buf is assumed to be nul terminated and its length is determined by strlen. the BIO is set to a read only state and as a result cannot be written to. this is useful when some data needs to be made available from a static area of memory in the form of a BIO. the supplied data is read directly from the supplied buffer: it is not copied first, so the supplied area of memory must be unchanged until the BIO is freed. do not touch it. do not. 🫵

all of the five functions described above return an error with BIO_s_dgram_mem().

📝 NOTES 📝

writes to memory BIOs will always succeed if memory is available — that is, their size can grow indefinitely. one exception though: BIO_s_dgram_mem() when BIO_set_write_buf_size(3) is called on it. in that case the write buffer size will be fixed, and any writes that would overflow the buffer will return an error.

every write after a partial read (not all data in the memory buffer was read) to a read write memory BIO will have to move the unread data with an internal copy operation. so if a BIO contains a lot of data and it is read in small chunks intertwined with writes, the operation can be very slow. adding a buffering BIO to the chain can speed up the process. optimization slay ✨

calling BIO_set_mem_buf() on a secmem or dgram BIO will give undefined results, including perhaps a program crash. bestie, don't. 💀

switching a memory BIO from read write to read only is not supported and can give undefined results, including a program crash. there are two notable exceptions to the rule:

assigning a static memory buffer immediately after BIO creation and setting the BIO as read only.
starting with a read write BIO, then temporarily switching it to read only and calling BIO_reset() on the read only BIO immediately before switching it back to read write. before the BIO is freed it must be switched back to the read write mode.

calling BIO_get_mem_ptr() on a read only BIO will return a BUF_MEM that contains only the remaining data to be read. if the close status of the BIO is set to BIO_NOCLOSE, before freeing the BUF_MEM the data pointer in it must be set to NULL, as the data pointer does not point to an allocated memory.

calling BIO_reset() on a read write memory BIO with the BIO_FLAGS_NONCLEAR_RST flag set can have unexpected outcomes when the reads and writes to the BIO are intertwined. as documented above, the BIO will be reset to the state after the last completed write operation — and the effects of reads preceding that write operation cannot be undone. no take-backs 😭

calling BIO_get_mem_ptr() prior to a BIO_reset() call with BIO_FLAGS_NONCLEAR_RST set has the same effect as a write operation.

calling BIO_set_close() with BIO_NOCLOSE orphans the BUF_MEM internal to the BIO, not its actual data buffer. see the examples section for the proper method for claiming ownership of the data pointer for a deferred free operation. iykyk 🧚

🎀 RETURN VALUES 🎀

BIO_s_mem(), BIO_s_dgram_mem() and BIO_s_secmem() return a valid memory BIO_METHOD structure.
BIO_set_mem_eof_return(), BIO_set_mem_buf() and BIO_get_mem_ptr() return 1 on success or a value which is less than or equal to 0 if an error occurred.
BIO_get_mem_data() returns the total number of bytes available on success, 0 if b is NULL, or a negative value in case of other errors.
BIO_new_mem_buf() returns a valid BIO structure on success or NULL on error.

💅 EXAMPLES 💅

create a memory BIO and write some data to it:

BIO *mem = BIO_new(BIO_s_mem());

BIO_puts(mem, "Hello World\n");

create a read only memory BIO:

char data[] = "Hello World";
BIO *mem = BIO_new_mem_buf(data, -1);

extract the BUF_MEM structure from a memory BIO and then free up the BIO:

BUF_MEM *bptr;

BIO_get_mem_ptr(mem, &bptr);
BIO_set_close(mem, BIO_NOCLOSE); /* So BIO_free() leaves BUF_MEM alone */
BIO_free(mem);

extract the BUF_MEM ptr, claim ownership of the internal data and free the BIO and BUF_MEM structure:

BUF_MEM *bptr;
char *data;

BIO_get_mem_data(bio, &data);
BIO_get_mem_ptr(bio, &bptr);
BIO_set_close(mem, BIO_NOCLOSE); /* So BIO_free orphans BUF_MEM */
BIO_free(bio);
bptr->data = NULL; /* Tell BUF_MEM to orphan data */
BUF_MEM_free(bptr);
...
free(data);

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

BIO_s_dgram_mem() was added in OpenSSL 3.2. new girl on the block, and she's thriving ⭐

👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

and that's the whole page, bestie 🦋 this was OpenSSL 4.0.3, dated 2026-09-29, and you just read the entire BIO_S_MEM(3SSL) lore. go forth and memory-BIO responsibly, mwah 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from

ubuntu stonking: libssl-doc 4.0.3-1ubuntu1 · Apache-2.0
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-11-03: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms