def inflate_long(s, always_positive=False):
    """turns a normalized byte string into a long-int (adapted from Crypto.Util.number)"""
    out = long(0)
    negative = 0
    if not always_positive and (len(s) > 0) and (byte_ord(s[0]) >= 0x80):
        negative = 1
    if len(s) % 4:
        filler = zero_byte
        if negative:
            filler = max_byte
        # never convert this to ``s +=`` because this is a string, not a number
        # noinspection PyAugmentAssignment
        s = filler * (4 - len(s) % 4) + s
    for i in range(0, len(s), 4):
        out = (out << 32) + struct.unpack('>I', s[i:i+4])[0]
    if negative:
        out -= (long(1) << (8 * len(s)))
    return out