linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v5 0/7] /dev/random

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Message-ID: <CAJU7zaJFCty9CQZwzY3_N2Rx91mh-FhJd8Us+akHpTzCc5CjZw@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Tue, 21 Jun 2016 09:12:07 +0200
From:	Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos <nmav@...tls.org>
To:	Stephan Mueller <smueller@...onox.de>
Cc:	"Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>, Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>,
	Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>,
	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	Sandy Harris <sandyinchina@...il.com>,
	Jason Cooper <cryptography@...edaemon.net>,
	John Denker <jsd@...n.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...ux.intel.com>,
	Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>,
	George Spelvin <linux@...izon.com>,
	Linux Crypto Mailing List <linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 0/7] /dev/random - a new approach

On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 5:43 PM, Stephan Mueller <smueller@...onox.de> wrote:
>> Personally, I don't really use /dev/random, nor would I recommend it
>> for most application programmers.  At this point, getrandom(2) really
>> is the preferred interface unless you have some very specialized
>> needs.
> I fully agree. But there are use cases for /dev/random, notably as a seed
> source for other DRNG.

Is that really the case? I believe all DRNG's use /dev/urandom anyway
for seeding since they cannot afford indeterminate blocking. It would
be a gain for everyone if /dev/random was the same as /dev/urandom in
Linux.

regards,
Nikos