Welcome
========================================

Botan is a :doc:`BSD-licensed <license>` crypto library for C++. It
provides applications with most any :doc:`cryptographic algorithm
<algos>` you might be looking for, along with :doc:`SSL/TLS <ssl>`,
:doc:`X.509 certificates and CRLs <x509>`, a :doc:`pipeline-style
message processing system <filters>`, and a wide variety of other
features. A third party open source implementation of `SSHv2
<http://www.netsieben.com/products/ssh/>`_ that uses botan is also
available. In addition to C++ you can use botan from Python or Perl,
though the current bindings only wrap portions of the library.

See the :doc:`faq` for a list of common questions and answers.

.. only:: html and website

   See :doc:`download` for information about getting the latest version.

The core of botan is written in C++98 with no dependencies besides the
STL and the rest of the ISO standard library, but the library also
includes optional modules which make further assumptions about their
environment, providing features such as compression (using zlib or
bzip2), entropy gathering, and secure memory allocation. Assembly
implementations of key algorithms like SHA-1 and multiple precision
integer routines for x86 and x86-64 processors are also included.

It runs on most common operating systems and can be used with a number
of different commercial and open source compilers. The :doc:`build log
<build_log>` contains information about recently tested targets. It is
already included in most major package distributions, including
\
`Fedora <https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/botan>`_,
`EPEL <http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/beta/6/SRPMS/repoview/botan.html>`_ (for RHEL/CentOS),
`Debian <http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=libbotan>`_,
`Ubuntu <http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=botan>`_,
`Gentoo <http://packages.gentoo.org/package/botan>`_,
`Arch Linux <http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/botan/>`_,
`Slackbuild <http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=Botan>`_,
`FreeBSD <http://www.freshports.org/security/botan>`_,
`NetBSD <ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/security/botan/README.html>`_,
`Cygwin <http://cygwin.com/packages/botan/>`_,
`MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&amp;substr=botan>`_,
`OpenPKG <http://www.openpkg.org/product/packages/?package=botan>`_, and
`T2 SDE <http://www.t2-project.org/packages/botan.html>`_ and has
more than a few :doc:`known users <users>`.

It was started as a personal project by `Jack Lloyd
<http:://www.randombit.net>`_,who continues to be the maintainer and
release manager. Since the first release in 2001, a number of
:doc:`individuals and organizations <credits>` have contributed bug
fixes and new features. Check out the :doc:`release notes <log>` and
`news archive <http://botan.randombit.net/news>`_ for more project
history.

If you need help or have questions, send a mail to the `development
mailing list
<http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/botan-devel/>`_.
"Philosophical" bug reports, announcements of programs using the
library, and related topics are also welcome. :doc:`Commercial support
options <support>` are also available. If you find what you believe to
be a bug, please file a ticket in `Bugzilla
<http://bugs.randombit.net/>`_.

A useful reference while reading this manual is the `Doxygen
documentation <http://botan.randombit.net/doxygen>`_.

Recommended Reading
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's a very good idea if you have some knowledge of cryptography
*before* trying to use the library. This is an area where it is very
easy to make mistakes, and where things are often subtle and/or
counterintuitive. Obviously the library tries to provide things at a
high level precisely to minimize the number of ways things can go
wrong, but naive use will almost certainly not result in a secure
system.

Especially recommended are:

- *Cryptography Engineering*
  Niels Ferguson, Bruce Schneier, and Tadayoshi Kohno

- *Security Engineering -- A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems*
  Ross Anderson

- *Handbook of Applied Cryptography*
  Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. Van Oorschot, and Scott A. Vanstone
  (`available online <http://www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/>`_)