The gss_release_buffer() function frees buffer storage allocated by a GSS-API function. The gss_release_buffer() function also zeros the length field in the descriptor to which the buffer parameter refers, while the GSS-API function sets the pointer field in the descriptor to NULL. Any buffer object returned by a GSS-API function may be passed to gss_release_buffer(), even if no storage is associated with the buffer.

The parameter descriptions for gss_release_buffer() follow:

minor_status

Mechanism-specific status code.

buffer

The storage associated with the buffer will be deleted. The gss_buffer_desc() object will not be freed; however, its length field will be zeroed.

The gss_release_buffer() function may return the following status codes:

GSS_S_COMPLETE

Successful completion

GSS_S_FAILURE

The underlying mechanism detected an error for which no specific GSS status code is defined. The mechanism-specific status code reported by means of the minor_status parameter details the error condition.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

attributes(5)

GSS-API Programming Guide