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| • Data types: | MPI related data types. | |
| • Basic functions: | First steps with MPI numbers. | |
| • MPI formats: | External representation of MPIs. | |
| • Calculations: | Performing MPI calculations. | |
| • Comparisons: | How to compare MPI values. | |
| • Bit manipulations: | How to access single bits of MPI values. | |
| • EC functions: | Elliptic curve related functions. | |
| • Miscellaneous: | Miscellaneous MPI functions. |
Public key cryptography is based on mathematics with large numbers. To implement the public key functions, a library for handling these large numbers is required. Because of the general usefulness of such a library, its interface is exposed by Libgcrypt. In the context of Libgcrypt and in most other applications, these large numbers are called MPIs (multi-precision-integers).