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(gmp.info)Raw Output Internals

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Raw Output Internals
====================

`mpz_out_raw' uses the following format.

     +------+------------------------+
     | size |       data bytes       |
     +------+------------------------+

   The size is 4 bytes written most significant byte first, being the
number of subsequent data bytes, or the twos complement negative of
that when a negative integer is represented.  The data bytes are the
absolute value of the integer, written most significant byte first.

   The most significant data byte is always non-zero, so the output is
the same on all systems, irrespective of limb size.

   In GMP 1, leading zero bytes were written to pad the data bytes to a
multiple of the limb size.  `mpz_inp_raw' will still accept this, for
compatibility.

   The use of "big endian" for both the size and data fields is
deliberate, it makes the data easy to read in a hex dump of a file.
Unfortunately it also means that the limb data must be reversed when
reading or writing, so neither a big endian nor little endian system
can just read and write `_mp_d'.