Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 22:56:00 -0800 From: Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.ORG> To: Peter Jeremy <peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, sheldonh@uunet.co.za, arnold@skeeve.com Subject: Re: BSD random for Alpha? Message-ID: <20001214225600.F2040@citusc.usc.edu> In-Reply-To: <20001204092348.A92196@gsmx07.alcatel.com.au>; from peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au on Mon, Dec 04, 2000 at 09:23:48AM %2B1100 References: <20001204092348.A92196@gsmx07.alcatel.com.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, Dec 04, 2000 at 09:23:48AM +1100, Peter Jeremy wrote: > >Hi. I've switched to the new random.c you sent me for gawk. My > >Linux/Alpha Guru reports that the code in it assumes that sizeof(long) > >is always 4, and one particular test doesn't "look" very random on > >the Alpha. > > > >My question is, is there a better version of random that can deal > >with both 32 and 64 bit systems in the same source code? Would > >the NetBSD people maybe have such a thing? > > Try a Fibonacci-sequence random number generator (they're mentioned > in Knuth). The general form is: > > X[n] = (X[n-j] + X[n-k]) mod m I think this would be bad - for a general-purpose language like awk we should be using a cryptographic-strength PRNG like arc4random() or /dev/urandom so that people can use it for any purpose. 64-bit cleanliness can presumably be taken care of easily enough. Kris To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20001214225600.F2040>