- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- SEE ALSO

# NAME

bio - I/O abstraction

# SYNOPSIS

     #include <openssl/bio.h>

TBA

# DESCRIPTION

A BIO is an I/O abstraction, it hides many of the underlying I/O details from an application. If an application uses a BIO for its I/O it can transparently handle SSL connections, unencrypted network connections and file I/O.

There are two type of BIO, a source/sink BIO and a filter BIO.

As its name implies a source/sink BIO is a source and/or sink of data, examples include a socket BIO and a file BIO.

A filter BIO takes data from one BIO and passes it through to another, or the application. The data may be left unmodified (for example a message digest BIO) or translated (for example an encryption BIO). The effect of a filter BIO may change according to the I/O operation it is performing: for example an encryption BIO will encrypt data if it is being written to and decrypt data if it is being read from.

BIOs can be joined together to form a chain (a single BIO is a chain with one component). A chain normally consist of one source/sink BIO and one or more filter BIOs. Data read from or written to the first BIO then traverses the chain to the end (normally a source/sink BIO).

# SEE ALSO

BIO_ctrl, BIO_f_base64, BIO_f_buffer, BIO_f_cipher, BIO_f_md, BIO_f_null, BIO_f_ssl, BIO_find_type, BIO_new, BIO_new_bio_pair, BIO_push, BIO_read, BIO_s_accept, BIO_s_bio, BIO_s_connect, BIO_s_fd, BIO_s_file, BIO_s_mem, BIO_s_null, BIO_s_socket, BIO_set_callback, BIO_should_retry