I found the rule -- at least for C99. It is ISO 9899:1999 section 6.2.5, rule 26 and footnote 39:
"26) A pointer to void shall have the same representation and alignment requirements as a pointer to a character type. Similarly, pointers to qualified or unqualified versions of compatible types shall have the same representation and alignment requirements. All pointers to structure types shall have the same representation and alignment requirements as each other. All pointers to union types shall have the same representation and alignment requirements as each other. Pointers to other types need not have the same representation or alignment requirements." "39) The same representation and alignment requirements are meant to imply interchangeability as arguments to functions, return values from functions, and members of unions." This means you cannot pass an 'X509 **' as a 'char **'. Unfortunately 'X509 *' and 'char *' are not compatible types because 'X509' and 'char' are not compatible. They are not both unions, they are not both structures. DS ______________________________________________________________________ OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org Development Mailing List openssl-dev@openssl.org Automated List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]