documentation issue

Paul Zimmermann Paul.Zimmermann at loria.fr
Tue Feb 26 16:40:37 CET 2008


       Hi,

the documentation of mpz_invert says:

 -- Function: int mpz_invert (mpz_t ROP, mpz_t OP1, mpz_t OP2)
     Compute the inverse of OP1 modulo OP2 and put the result in ROP.
     If the inverse exists, the return value is non-zero and ROP will
     satisfy 0 <= ROP < OP2.  If an inverse doesn't exist the return
             ^^^^^^^^
     value is zero and ROP is undefined.

Unless I'm mistaken, if the inverse exists, ROP cannot be zero for |OP2| >= 2.

Also, the behaviour should be specified for OP2 = 0 and |OP2| = 1.
If one assumes that the inverse exists if there exists an integer B
such that ROP*OP1 + B*OP2 = 1, then:

(a) for OP2=0, only OP1=1 and OP1=-1 admit an inverse, which seems what the
    implementation does;
(b) for OP2=1, then any integer ROP is an inverse, since one can take
    B = 1 - ROP*OP1. But the return value seems to be always 0 in that case.

Paul Zimmermann


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