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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2014-02-04 17:19, Tony Arcieri
wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CAHOTMV+ME380gRw7-1PbbmxH4+AOGmAMJ+Zv6oFje0szW68bVQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 9:12 PM,
Watson Ladd <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:watsonbladd@gmail.com" target="_blank"
onclick="window.open('https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&tf=1&to=watsonbladd@gmail.com&cc=&bcc=&su=&body=','_blank');return
false;">watsonbladd@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Why does
/dev/random not do this and so avoid blocking after
startup?<br>
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<div>The /dev/random vs /dev/urandom distinction is probably
a mistake. Also making these things files in /dev is also
probably a mistake. Ideally there would just be a system
call to obtain some randomness from the kernel, then an
awful lot of work to ensure that randomness is good. It
shouldn't block.</div>
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<br>
If not blocking, every install needs some randomness supplied on
disk, at least sixteen bytes, thirty two to be on the safe side.
During normal usage, that little bit of randomness on disk slowly
has some true randomness added, perhaps only sixteen bytes a day.
There can be no system that does not have that much unpredictability
available.<br>
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