Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754047AbXLDQwM (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Dec 2007 11:52:12 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751004AbXLDQv6 (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Dec 2007 11:51:58 -0500 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:38271 "EHLO the-village.bc.nu" rhost-flags-OK-FAIL-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751145AbXLDQv5 (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Dec 2007 11:51:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 16:47:20 +0000 From: Alan Cox To: Adrian Bunk Cc: Marc Haber , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandom deplete entropy so much? Message-ID: <20071204164720.6e4dc2c4@the-village.bc.nu> In-Reply-To: <20071204161811.GB15974@stusta.de> References: <20071204114125.GA17310@torres.zugschlus.de> <20071204161811.GB15974@stusta.de> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.10.0 (GTK+ 2.10.14; i386-redhat-linux-gnu) Organization: Red Hat UK Cyf., Amberley Place, 107-111 Peascod Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1TE, Y Deyrnas Gyfunol. Cofrestrwyd yng Nghymru a Lloegr o'r rhif cofrestru 3798903 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 560 Lines: 12 > No matter what you consider as being better, changing a 12 years old and > widely used userspace interface like /dev/urandom is simply not an > option. Fixing it to be more efficient in its use of entropy and also fixing the fact its not actually a good random number source would be worth looking at however. -- 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/