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From: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>,
	Linux Kernel Developers List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	w@1wt.eu, ewust@umich.edu, zakir@umich.edu, greg@kroah.com,
	nadiah@cs.ucsd.edu, jhalderm@umich.edu, tglx@linutronix.de,
	davem@davemloft.net, stable@kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 01/10] random: make 'add_interrupt_randomness()' do something sane
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2012 09:01:27 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20120706130127.GB10798@thunk.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CA+55aFxhobNMY5RLmH+tKox8voqfH-bVqKVF03JeeVrHkhLcaQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Jul 05, 2012 at 07:59:00PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 4:21 PM, Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 05, 2012 at 05:31:22PM -0500, Matt Mackall wrote:
> >>
> >> It's better to mix and not credit than to not mix at all. Instead just
> >> check the fast count against HZ before the credit.
> >
> > I'm not sure what you mean by this?
> 
> So what I think Matt meant was to check number of timer interrupts
> against the fast count.
> 
> IOW, always call "add_interrupt_randomness()", but then in that
> function, when you determine the amount of entropy, check if there
> were non-timer interrupts in the last HZ cycle. If there were purely
> timer interrupts, you can still mix in the cycle information, but it's
> likely to be fairly weak.

I'm going to have to plead ignorance to how the timer code works these
days.  With the advent of clockevents and NOHZ, it's gotten a lot more
complicated.  What in the world is "fast count"?  I've grepped for it,
and I can't find it.

I can simply not credit entropy of the timer is on the irq, but I
think you and Matt were suggesting more subtle.  I just have no idea
how to tell if there were non-timer interrupts during the last HZ
cycle.  Can you give me a hint?

Thanks,

						- ted

  reply	other threads:[~2012-07-06 13:01 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 56+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2012-07-05 18:12 [PATCH 00/10] /dev/random fixups Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 01/10] random: make 'add_interrupt_randomness()' do something sane Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:47   ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-05 18:52     ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 21:39       ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-05 21:47         ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 22:00           ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 22:21             ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 22:31               ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-05 22:35                 ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 23:21                 ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-06  2:59                   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-06 13:01                     ` Theodore Ts'o [this message]
2012-07-06 16:24                       ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-06 16:52                         ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-09 19:15                           ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-25 18:43                         ` Thomas Gleixner
     [not found]   ` <CAGsuqq2MWuFnY7PMb_2ddBNNJr80xB_JW+Wryq3mhhmQuEojpg@mail.gmail.com>
2012-07-06 21:59     ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 02/10] random: use lockless techniques when mixing entropy pools Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:18   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 18:19   ` Greg KH
2012-07-05 23:09     ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 19:10   ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-05 19:47     ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 20:45       ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 03/10] random: create add_device_randomness() interface Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 04/10] usb: feed USB device information to the /dev/random driver Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 05/10] net: feed /dev/random with the MAC address when registering a device Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 06/10] random: use the arch-specific rng in xfer_secondary_pool Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:49   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 07/10] random: add new get_random_bytes_arch() function Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:35   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-07-05 19:50     ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 21:45     ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-25  3:37   ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-25  7:22     ` Ingo Molnar
2012-07-25 15:10     ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-25 15:19       ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-25 17:37       ` [PATCH] random: mix in architectural randomness in extract_buf() H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-25 23:50         ` Ben Hutchings
2012-07-26  0:32           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-28  2:39         ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-28  2:48           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-26  3:16       ` [PATCH 07/10] random: add new get_random_bytes_arch() function H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-26  3:24         ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 08/10] random: unify mix_pool_bytes() and mix_pool_bytes_entropy() Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 09/10] random: add tracepoints for easier debugging and verification Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-05 18:12 ` [PATCH 10/10] MAINTAINERS: Theodore Ts'o is taking over the random driver Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-06 11:40 ` [PATCH 00/10] /dev/random fixups Fengguang Wu
2012-07-06 12:44   ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-20 20:15 ` [PATCH] dmi: Feed DMI table to /dev/random driver Tony Luck
2012-07-20 21:03   ` Matt Mackall
2012-07-21  0:56   ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-21  1:19     ` Tony Luck
2012-07-21  2:02       ` Theodore Ts'o
2012-07-23 16:47         ` [PATCH] random: Add comment to random_initialize() Tony Luck

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