Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 10:47:45 +1100
To: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>
Cc: Kim Phillips <kim.phillips@freescale.com>, johnpol@2ka.mipt.ru,
       Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>, James Morris <jmorris@redhat.com>,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org,
       cryptoapi@lists.logix.cz, David McCullough <davidm@snapgear.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] API for true Random Number Generators to add entropy (2.6.11)
Message-ID: <20050325234745.GA22661@gondor.apana.org.au>
References: <1111737496.20797.59.camel@uganda> <424495A8.40804@freescale.com> <20050325234348.GA17411@havoc.gtf.org>
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From: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
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On Fri, Mar 25, 2005 at 06:43:49PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> 
> In any case, it is the wrong solution to simply "turn on the tap" and
> let the RNG spew data.  There needs to be a limiting factor... typically
> rngd should figure out when /dev/random needs more entropy, or simply
> delay a little bit between entropy collection/stuffing runs.

Completely agreed.  Having it in rngd also allows the scheduler to
do its job.

When applications need entropy from /dev/random and they can't get it,
they'll simply block which allows rngd to run to refill the tank.
-- 
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Email: Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
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