From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 15 07:43:59 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7025A16A419 for ; Sat, 15 Sep 2007 07:43:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 35C8C13C467 for ; Sat, 15 Sep 2007 07:43:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDESK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id l8F7hYNF060034; Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:43:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "Roland Smith" , "Per olof Ljungmark" Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:44:10 -0700 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <20070913153630.GA9448@slackbox.xs4all.nl> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1896 Importance: Normal Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: /dev/random question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 07:43:59 -0000 /dev/urandom is a hack. In a perfect world, the /dev/random device would be able to return a string of random numbers as fast as you wanted, and there would not have been a need for /dev/urandom Since FreeBSD tries to be close to perfect ;-) it uses a better random driver that can produce random numbers as fast as you want them. The symlink is there only as a crutch for older UNIX code that was written when there was a difference between /dev/random and /dev/urandom Ted > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Roland Smith > Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:37 AM > To: Per olof Ljungmark > Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: /dev/random question > > > On Thu, Sep 13, 2007 at 04:56:26PM +0200, Per olof Ljungmark wrote: > > Hi, > > > > Could someone on the list point me to a document that explains the > > functionality of /dev/random in FreeBSD in a little more depth > than the man > > page? In other OS's I've looked at random and urandom are > different, here > > it's a symlink (talking about RELENG-6 onwards). > > FreeBSD uses the yarrow algorithm, as mentioned in random(4). See > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrow_algorithm > http://www.schneier.com/yarrow.html > > Roland > -- > R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ > [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] > pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) >