1 /* Key.java -- A abstract representation of a digital key
2 Copyright (C) 1998, 2000, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 This file is part of GNU Classpath.
6 GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
7 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
8 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
11 GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
12 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
13 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
14 General Public License for more details.
16 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
17 along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
18 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
21 Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
22 making a combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms and
23 conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
26 As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
27 permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
28 executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
29 modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
30 terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
31 independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
32 module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from
33 or based on this library. If you modify this library, you may extend
34 this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
35 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this
36 exception statement from your version. */
38 package java
.security
;
40 import java
.io
.Serializable
;
43 * This interfaces models the base characteristics that all keys must
44 * have. These are: a key algorithm, an encoded form, and a format used
45 * to encode the key. Specific key types inherit from this interface.
46 * Note that since this interface extends <code>Serializable</code>, all
47 * keys may be serialized. Keys are generally obtained through key generators,
48 * including {@link KeyFactory}.
50 * @author Aaron M. Renn <arenn@urbanophile.com>
54 * @see KeyPairGenerator
60 * @status updated to 1.4
62 public interface Key
extends Serializable
65 * The verion identifier used for serialization.
67 long serialVersionUID
= 6603384152749567654L;
70 * This method returns the name of the algorithm for this key. This is a
71 * <code>String</code> such as "RSA".
73 * @return the name of the algorithm in use
75 String
getAlgorithm();
78 * This method returns the name of the encoding format for this key. This
79 * is the name of the ASN.1 data format used for this key, such as
80 * "X.509" or "PKCS#8". This method returns <code>null</code> if this key
81 * does not have an encoding format.
83 * @return the name of the encoding format for this key, or null
88 * This method returns the encoded form of the key. If this key does not
89 * support encoding, this method returns <code>null</code>.
91 * @return the encoded form of the key, or null