Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261855AbUK2Xny (ORCPT ); Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:43:54 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261862AbUK2Xny (ORCPT ); Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:43:54 -0500 Received: from mercury.sdinet.de ([193.103.161.30]:62135 "EHLO mercury.sdinet.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261855AbUK2Xnu (ORCPT ); Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:43:50 -0500 Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:43:49 +0100 (CET) From: Sven-Haegar Koch To: Bernard Normier Cc: jonathan@jonmasters.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Concurrent access to /dev/urandom In-Reply-To: <002c01c4d669$28ec6e30$6401a8c0@centrino> Message-ID: References: <006001c4d4c2$14470880$6400a8c0@centrino> <35fb2e5904112914476df48518@mail.gmail.com> <002c01c4d669$28ec6e30$6401a8c0@centrino> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 839 Lines: 25 On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Bernard Normier wrote: >>> I use /dev/urandom to generate UUIDs by reading 16 random bytes from >>> /dev/urandom (very much like e2fsprogs' libuuid). >> >> Why not use /dev/random for such data instead? > > A UUID generator that blocks from time to time waiting for entropy would not > be usable. Especially when used on a box without any effective entropy source - like praktically most cheap servers stashed away into some rack. c'ya sven -- The Internet treats censorship as a routing problem, and routes around it. (John Gilmore on http://www.cygnus.com/~gnu/) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/