UI_NEW(3) | Library Functions Manual | UI_NEW(3)

# NAME

`UI_new`, `UI_new_method`, `UI_free`, `UI_add_input_string`, `UI_dup_input_string`, `UI_add_verify_string`, `UI_dup_verify_string`, `UI_add_input_boolean`, `UI_dup_input_boolean`, `UI_add_info_string`, `UI_dup_info_string`, `UI_add_error_string`, `UI_dup_error_string`, `UI_construct_prompt`, `UI_add_user_data`, `UI_get0_user_data`, `UI_get0_result`, `UI_process`, `UI_ctrl`, `UI_set_default_method`, `UI_get_default_method`, `UI_get_method`, `UI_set_method`, `UI_OpenSSL`, `UI_null` — New User Interface

# SYNOPSIS

library “libcrypto”
`#include <openssl/ui.h>`

UI *
`UI_new`(void);

UI *
`UI_new_method`(const UI_METHOD *method);

void
`UI_free`(UI *ui);

int
`UI_add_input_string`(UI *ui, const char *prompt, int flags, char *result_buf, int minsize, int maxsize);

int
`UI_dup_input_string`(UI *ui, const char *prompt, int flags, char *result_buf, int minsize, int maxsize);

int
`UI_add_verify_string`(UI *ui, const char *prompt, int flags, char *result_buf, int minsize, int maxsize, const char *test_buf);

int
`UI_dup_verify_string`(UI *ui, const char *prompt, int flags, char *result_buf, int minsize, int maxsize, const char *test_buf);

int
`UI_add_input_boolean`(UI *ui, const char *prompt, const char *action_desc, const char *ok_chars, const char *cancel_chars, int flags, char *result_buf);

int
`UI_dup_input_boolean`(UI *ui, const char *prompt, const char *action_desc, const char *ok_chars, const char *cancel_chars, int flags, char *result_buf);

int
`UI_add_info_string`(UI *ui, const char *text);

int
`UI_dup_info_string`(UI *ui, const char *text);

int
`UI_add_error_string`(UI *ui, const char *text);

int
`UI_dup_error_string`(UI *ui, const char *text);

`/* These are the possible flags. They can be OR'ed together. */`
`#define UI_INPUT_FLAG_ECHO 0x01`
`#define UI_INPUT_FLAG_DEFAULT_PWD 0x02`

char *
`UI_construct_prompt`(UI *ui_method, const char *object_desc, const char *object_name);

void *
`UI_add_user_data`(UI *ui, void *user_data);

void *
`UI_get0_user_data`(UI *ui);

const char *
`UI_get0_result`(UI *ui, int i);

int
`UI_process`(UI *ui);

int
`UI_ctrl`(UI *ui, int cmd, long i, void *p, void (*f)());

`#define UI_CTRL_PRINT_ERRORS 1`
`#define UI_CTRL_IS_REDOABLE 2`

void
`UI_set_default_method`(const UI_METHOD *meth);

const UI_METHOD *
`UI_get_default_method`(void);

const UI_METHOD *
`UI_get_method`(UI *ui);

const UI_METHOD *
`UI_set_method`(UI *ui, const UI_METHOD *meth);

const UI_METHOD *
`UI_OpenSSL`(void);

const UI_METHOD *
`UI_null`(void);

# DESCRIPTION

UI stands for User Interface, and is a general purpose set of routines to prompt the user for text-based information. Through user-written methods (see UI_create_method(3)), prompting can be done in any way imaginable, be it plain text prompting, through dialog boxes or from a cell phone.

All the functions work through a context of the type UI. This context contains all the information needed to prompt correctly as well as a reference to a UI_METHOD, which is an ordered vector of functions that carry out the actual prompting.

The first thing to do is to create a UI with `UI_new`() or `UI_new_method`(), then add information to it with the `UI_add_*`() or `UI_dup_*`() functions. Also, user-defined random data can be passed down to the underlying method through calls to `UI_add_user_data`(). The default UI method doesn't care about these data, but other methods might. Finally, use `UI_process`() to actually perform the prompting and `UI_get0_result`() to find the result to the prompt.

A UI can contain more than one prompt, which are performed in the given sequence. Each prompt gets an index number which is returned by the `UI_add_*`() and `UI_dup_*`() functions, and has to be used to get the corresponding result with `UI_get0_result`().

The functions are as follows:

`UI_new`() creates a new UI using the default UI method. When done with this UI, it should be freed using `UI_free`().

`UI_new_method`() creates a new UI using the given UI method. When done with this UI, it should be freed using `UI_free`().

`UI_OpenSSL`() returns the built-in UI method (note: not necessarily the default one, since the default can be changed. See further on). This method is the most machine/OS dependent part of OpenSSL and normally generates the most problems when porting.

`UI_null`() returns a UI method that does nothing. Its use is to avoid getting internal defaults for passed UI_METHOD pointers.

`UI_free`() removes ui from memory, along with all other pieces of memory that are connected to it, like duplicated input strings, results and others. If ui is a `NULL` pointer, no action occurs.

`UI_add_input_string`() and `UI_add_verify_string`() add a prompt to ui, as well as flags and a result buffer and the desired minimum and maximum sizes of the result, not counting the final NUL character. The given information is used to prompt for information, for example a password, and to verify a password (i.e. having the user enter it twice and check that the same string was entered twice). `UI_add_verify_string`() takes an extra argument that should be a pointer to the result buffer of the input string that it's supposed to verify, or verification will fail.

`UI_add_input_boolean`() adds a prompt to ui that's supposed to be answered in a boolean way, with a single character for yes and a different character for no. A set of characters that can be used to cancel the prompt is given as well. The prompt itself is really divided in two, one part being the descriptive text (given through the prompt argument) and one describing the possible answers (given through the action_desc argument).

`UI_add_info_string`() and `UI_add_error_string`() add strings that are shown at the same time as the prompt for extra information or to show an error string. The difference between the two is only conceptual. With the builtin method, there's no technical difference between them. Other methods may make a difference between them, however.

The flags currently supported are `UI_INPUT_FLAG_ECHO`, which is relevant for `UI_add_input_string`() and will have the users response be echoed (when prompting for a password, this flag should obviously not be used), and `UI_INPUT_FLAG_DEFAULT_PWD`, which means that a default password of some sort will be used (completely depending on the application and the UI method).

`UI_dup_input_string`(), `UI_dup_verify_string`(), `UI_dup_input_boolean`(), `UI_dup_info_string`(), and `UI_dup_error_string`() are basically the same as their `UI_add_*`() counterparts, except that they make their own copies of all strings.

`UI_construct_prompt`() is a helper function that can be used to create a prompt from two pieces of information: a description and a name. The default constructor (if there is none provided by the method used) creates a string "Enter description for name:". With the description "pass phrase" and the file name "foo.key", that becomes "Enter pass phrase for foo.key:". Other methods may create whatever string and may include encodings that will be processed by the other method functions.

`UI_add_user_data`() adds a user data pointer for the method to use at any time. The builtin UI method doesn't care about this info. Note that several calls to this function doesn't add data - the previous blob is replaced with the one given as argument.

`UI_get0_user_data`() retrieves the data that has last been given to the ui with `UI_add_user_data`().

`UI_get0_result`() returns a pointer to the result buffer associated with the information indexed by i.

`UI_process`() goes through the information given so far, does all the printing and prompting and returns the final status, which is -2 on out-of-band events (Interrupt, Cancel, ...), -1 on error, or 0 on success.

`UI_ctrl`() adds extra control for the application author. For now, it understands two commands: `UI_CTRL_PRINT_ERRORS`, which makes `UI_process`() print the OpenSSL error stack as part of processing the ui, and `UI_CTRL_IS_REDOABLE`, which returns a flag saying if the used ui can be used again or not.

`UI_set_default_method`() changes the default UI method to the one given. This function is not thread-safe and should not be called at the same time as other OpenSSL functions.

`UI_get_default_method`() returns a pointer to the current default UI method.

`UI_get_method`() returns the UI method associated with a given ui.

`UI_set_method`() changes the UI method associated with a given ui.

# RETURN VALUES

`UI_new`() and `UI_new_method`() return a valid UI structure or `NULL` if an error occurred.

`UI_add_input_string`(), `UI_dup_input_string`(), `UI_add_verify_string`(), `UI_dup_verify_string`(), `UI_add_input_boolean`(), `UI_dup_input_boolean`(), `UI_add_info_string`(), `UI_dup_info_string`(), `UI_add_error_string`(), and `UI_dup_error_string`() return a positive number on success or a number less than or equal to zero otherwise.

`UI_construct_prompt`() and `UI_get0_result`() return a string or `NULL` if an error occurred.

`UI_add_user_data`() and `UI_get0_user_data`() return a pointer to the user data that was contained in ui before the call. In particular, `NULL` is a valid return value.

`UI_process`() returns 0 on success or a negative value on error.

`UI_ctrl`() returns a mask on success or -1 on error.

`UI_get_default_method`(), `UI_OpenSSL`() and `UI_null`() always return a pointer to a valid UI_METHOD structure.

`UI_get_method`() and `UI_set_method`() return a pointer to the UI_METHOD structure that is installed in ui after the call. The OpenSSL documentation says that they can fail and return `NULL`, but currently, this can only happen when and after `UI_set_method`() is called with an explicit `NULL` argument.

# SEE ALSO

crypto(3), UI_create_method(3), UI_get_string_type(3)

# HISTORY

These functions first appeared in OpenSSL 0.9.7 and have been available since OpenBSD 3.2.

`UI_null`() first appeared in OpenSSL 1.1.1 and has been available since OpenBSD 7.3.

# AUTHORS

Richard Levitte <richard@levitte.org> for the OpenSSL project.

June 8, 2025 | Debian