How are md5.h: pg_md5_hash() function and below functions working? - Mailing list pgsql-general

I can't understand functions in md5.h, these are seemingly little bit 
weird. Such as:

    /* Utilities common to all the MD5 implementations,
    as of md5_common.c */
    extern bool pg_md5_hash(const void *buff, size_t len, char *hexsum);
    extern bool pg_md5_binary(const void *buff, size_t len, void *outbuf);
    extern bool pg_md5_encrypt(const char *passwd, const char *salt,
                           size_t salt_len, char *buf);