Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:22:46 -0700
From: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>, Jack Steiner <steiner@sgi.com>,
       linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] - Randomize node rotor used in
 cpuset_mem_spread_node()
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On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:12:44 -0700
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:04:06 -0500
> Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com> wrote:
> 
> > > I suspect random32() would suffice here.  It avoids depleting the
> > > entropy pool altogether.
> > 
> > I wouldn't worry about that. get_random_int() touches the urandom pool,
> > which will always leave entropy around. Also, Ted and I decided over a
> > year ago that we should drop the whole entropy accounting framework,
> > which I'll get around to some rainy weekend.
> 
> hm, so why does random32() exist?  Speed?

Because I need a cheap fast pseudo-random source for emulation
and it got used for more and more non-cryptographic uses.
And like most random generators people keep forgetting that
it was not intended for security use.

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