<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [ ]> <chapter xml:id="sharing"> <title>Proxy Module</title> <para>When an application is aware of the fact that coordination is necessary between multiple consumers of a PKCS#11 module, and wants to load standard configured PKCS#11 modules, it can link to <literal>p11-kit</literal> and use the functions there to provide this functionality.</para> <para>However most current consumers of PKCS#11 are ignorant of this problem, and do not link to p11-kit. In order to solve this multiple initialization problem for all applications, <literal>p11-kit</literal> provides a proxy compatibility module.</para> <para>This proxy module acts like a normal PKCS#11 module, but internally loads a preconfigured set of PKCS#11 modules and manages their features as described earlier. Each slot in the configured modules is exposed as a slot of the <literal>p11-kit</literal> proxy module. The proxy module is then used as a normal PKCS#11 module would be. It can be loaded by crypto libraries like NSS and behaves as expected.</para> <para>The <literal>C_GetFunctionList</literal> exported entry point of the proxy module returns a new managed PKCS#11 module each time it is called. These managed instances are released when the proxy module is unloaded.</para> </chapter>