.TH LIBZAHL 7 libzahl .SH NAME libzahl - Big integer library .SH ETYMOLOGY The bold uppercase \(aqZ\(aq which represents the set of all integers is derived from the german word \(aqzahlen\(aq, whose singular is \(aqzahl\(aq. .SH DESCRIPTION .B libzahl is a C library for arbitrary size integers, that aims to be usable for rubust programs, and be fast. .P .B libzahl will accomplish this by using long jumps when an error is detected, rather than letting the caller also perform a check. This shall make the code in the user program cleaner too. .B libzahl will use dedicated temporary bignum integers whether possible, and necessary, for its internal calculations. .B libzahl will not deallocate allocations, but rather cache them for reuse. .P With the exception of functions working with strings, all output parameters are before the input parameters. .SH RATIONALE GMP MP cannot be used for rubust programs. LibTomMath is too slow, probably because of all memory allocations, and has an nonintuitive API. Hebimath is promising, but I think it can be done better. .SH NOTES .B libzahl is currently not thread-safe. .P You are strongly discouraged from using .B libzahl for cryptographic applications. Instead, use a library specifically targeting cryptography, otherwise, your program may be subject to side-channel attacks. .SH SEE ALSO .BR zsetup (3)