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SubjectRe: CONFIG_RANDOM option for 1.99.2
On Fri, 24 May 1996, Herbert Rosmanith wrote:

> a rendom generator placed in the kernel is a thematical error.
> i always thought that an OS is an abstracion of the hardware.
> please put random generators to where they belong to: to the
> application level. put it into some static library.

This is difficult, because once the information used by the random driver
is filtered to the application level, significant amounts of randomness
are lost, because of timing considerations. Real randomness generated
(esp. on a multiuser OS) by timing numbers can't be filtered. The only
way to ensure this is to build it into the OS.

Personally, I agree with the proposal to allow the device to be
configurable, just returning an end of file if it's unavailable.

Jon
----------
Jon Lasser (410)532-7138 - Obscenity is a crutch for
jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu inarticulate motherfuckers.
http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/
Finger for PGP key (1024/EC001E4D) - Fuck the CDA.



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