From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 25 21:38:14 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 13176106568B for ; Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:38:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: from mail2.fluidhosting.com (mx21.fluidhosting.com [204.14.89.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9562C8FC19 for ; Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:38:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 16087 invoked by uid 399); 25 Dec 2009 21:38:11 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO foreign.dougb.net) (dougb@dougbarton.us@127.0.0.1) by localhost with ESMTPAM; 25 Dec 2009 21:38:11 -0000 X-Originating-IP: 127.0.0.1 X-Sender: dougb@dougbarton.us Message-ID: <4B3530C2.4020607@FreeBSD.org> Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:38:10 -0800 From: Doug Barton Organization: http://SupersetSolutions.com/ User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20091206) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Robert Watson References: <5a5b03660912240445x7df1498dt42e29d93105efebc@mail.gmail.com> <4B339F27.6020707@freebsd.org> <5a5b03660912240941r6b76a839u819a8a1408816386@mail.gmail.com> <20091224231334.2e242371@gumby.homeunix.com> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0 OpenPGP: id=D5B2F0FB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, RW , markm@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: yarrow random generator X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:38:14 -0000 Robert Watson wrote: > I'll point Mark Murray at this thread and see if we can get him to opine > some on the current design choices and any potential changes to address > them. I was interested by your observation that the boot-time dumping > of bits into /dev/random may overflow the buffering -- I was peripherally involved in the introduction of yarrow in the sense that I wrote most of the rc and periodic stuff for it so I am also interested in this issue. Rather than speculating about whether it's overflowing the buffer perhaps a patch can be produced to test this hypothesis? I can't do it today, but if no one else gets around to it soon I will give it a look. Doug -- Improve the effectiveness of your Internet presence with a domain name makeover! http://SupersetSolutions.com/