Re: [PATCH] Add example to rand.3

[Alejandro Colomar <alx.manpages@gmail.com>]

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Hi Jonny,

On 12/28/22 21:51, Jonny Grant wrote:
> You're completely right. It's a real issue if software starts multiple times per second, or executes in less than one second and then runs again. Our software always runs for at least minutes, maybe another code suggestion for a seed would be good instead, like arc4random. I do like that rand() offers a reproducible sequence, useful when in some other software we logged the seed value used. random.4 - /dev/random would be a better seed than time(NULL) if running the program multiple times per second. Anyway, rand() is only pseudo-random, utilising /dev/random would be really much more random, and I like that the seed is saved between reboots.

Ahh, I didn't connect the dots the other day!  We don't need to wait for glibc. 
libbsd already provides arc4random on GNU/Linux systems, so I can already 
recommend using arc4random to seed srand(3).

I'll prepare a patch...

Cheers,

Alex

> 
> Cheers, Jonny
> 

-- 
<http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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