From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 12:04:02 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 12:03:53 -0400 Received: from abraham.CS.Berkeley.EDU ([128.32.37.121]:3087 "EHLO paip.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 20 Aug 2001 12:03:42 -0400 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Path: not-for-mail From: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner) Newsgroups: isaac.lists.linux-kernel Subject: Re: /dev/random in 2.4.6 Date: 20 Aug 2001 16:00:30 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Distribution: isaac Message-ID: <9lrc6u$6pv$1@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu> In-Reply-To: <2251207905.998322034@[10.132.112.53]> NNTP-Posting-Host: mozart.cs.berkeley.edu X-Trace: abraham.cs.berkeley.edu 998323230 6975 128.32.45.153 (20 Aug 2001 16:00:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 20 Aug 2001 16:00:30 GMT X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test74 (May 26, 2000) Originator: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Alex Bligh - linux-kernel wrote: >OK; well in which case it doesn't solve the problem. I don't see why not. Apply this change, and use /dev/urandom. You'll never block, and the outputs should be thoroughly unpredictable. What's missing? (I don't see why so many people use /dev/random rather than /dev/urandom. I harbor suspicions that this is a misunderstanding about the properties of pseudorandom number generation.)