1: /* Key.java -- A abstract representation of a digital key 2: Copyright (C) 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 3: 4: This file is part of GNU Classpath. 5: 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) 9: any later version. 10: 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. 15: 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., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 19: 02110-1301 USA. 20: 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 24: combination. 25: 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. */ 37: 38: package java.security; 39: 40: import java.io.Serializable; 41: 42: /** 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}. 49: * 50: * @author Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) 51: * @see PublicKey 52: * @see PrivateKey 53: * @see KeyPair 54: * @see KeyPairGenerator 55: * @see KeyFactory 56: * @see KeySpec 57: * @see Identity 58: * @see Signer 59: * @since 1.1 60: * @status updated to 1.4 61: */ 62: public interface Key extends Serializable 63: { 64: /** 65: * The version identifier used for serialization. 66: */ 67: long serialVersionUID = 6603384152749567654L; 68: 69: /** 70: * This method returns the name of the algorithm for this key. This is a 71: * <code>String</code> such as "RSA". 72: * 73: * @return the name of the algorithm in use 74: */ 75: String getAlgorithm(); 76: 77: /** 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. 82: * 83: * @return the name of the encoding format for this key, or null 84: */ 85: String getFormat(); 86: 87: /** 88: * This method returns the encoded form of the key. If this key does not 89: * support encoding, this method returns <code>null</code>. 90: * 91: * @return the encoded form of the key, or null 92: */ 93: byte[] getEncoded(); 94: } // interface Key