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10. MPI library
| 10.1 Data types | MPI related data types. | |
| 10.2 Basic functions | First steps with MPI numbers. | |
| 10.3 MPI formats | External representation of MPIs. | |
| 10.4 Calculations | Performing MPI calculations. | |
| 10.5 Comparisons | How to compare MPI values. | |
| 10.6 Bit manipulations | How to access single bits of MPI values. | |
| 10.7 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).