From 228dcefe835cd31ba3befd11fa4d757e4de716d9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Frank Denis Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:56:17 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] More blurb --- README.markdown | 71 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 66 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.markdown b/README.markdown index 5f8a33a3..8c9c4ed2 100644 --- a/README.markdown +++ b/README.markdown @@ -1,8 +1,69 @@ -# libsodium - P(ortable|ackageable) NaCl +# libsodium -Portable, cross-compilable, installable, packageable version of the NaCl -crypto library. +[NaCl](http://nacl.cr.yp.to/) (pronounced "salt") is a new easy-to-use +high-speed software library for network communication, encryption, +decryption, signatures, etc. -## comparison with vanilla NaCl +NaCl's goal is to provide all of the core operations needed to build +higher-level cryptographic tools. + +Sodium is a portable, cross-compilable, installable, packageable +version of NaCl, binary-compatible with NaCl. + +## Portable + +In order to pick the fastest working implementation of each primitive, +NaCl performs tests and benchmarks at compile-time. Unfortunately, the +resulting library is not garanteed to work on different hardware. + +Sodium currently only ships portable reference implementations. + +Optimized implementations (including NEON optimizations) will eventually +be supported, but tests and benchmarks will be performed at run-time, +so that the same binary package can still run everywhere. + +Sodium is tested on a variety of compilers and operating systems, +including Windows, iOS and Android. + +## Installable + +Sodium is a shared library with a machine-independant set of +headers, so that it can easily be used by 3rd party projects. + +The library is built using autotools, making it easy to package. + +Installation is trivial, and both compilation and testing can take +advantage of multiple CPU cores: + + ./configure + make + make check + make install + +## Comparison with vanilla NaCl + +The default public-key signature system in NaCl was a prototype that +shouldn't be used any more. + +Sodium ships with the SUPERCOP reference implementation of +[Ed25519](http://ed25519.cr.yp.to/), and uses this system by default +for `crypto_sign*` operations. + +For backward compatibility, the previous system is still compiled in, +as `crypto_sign_edwards25519sha512batch*`. + +## Additional features + +The Sodium library provides some convenience functions in order to retrieve +the current version of the library: + + const char *sodium_version_string(void); + const int sodium_version_major(void); + const int sodium_version_minor(void); + +Headers are installed in `${prefix}/include/sodium`. + +A convenience header includes everything you need to use the library: + + #include -We are using ed25519 from SUPERCOP, as even DJB doesn't recommend using edwards25519sha512batch anymore - this will reach NaCL one day...