From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Tue May  9 15:05:32 2006
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71FC616A40D
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Tue,  9 May 2006 15:05:32 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com)
Received: from mx00.pub.collaborativefusion.com
	(mx00.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.199])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 079E143D75
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Tue,  9 May 2006 15:05:26 +0000 (GMT)
	(envelope-from wmoran@collaborativefusion.com)
Received: from vanquish.pgh.priv.collaborativefusion.com
	(vanquish.pgh.priv.collaborativefusion.com [192.168.2.61])
	(AUTH: PLAIN wmoran, TLS: TLSv1/SSLv3,256bits,AES256-SHA)
	by wingspan with esmtp; Tue, 09 May 2006 11:05:24 -0400
	id 00056421.4460AFB4.0001747D
Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 11:04:44 -0400
From: Bill Moran <wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
To: Frank Steinborn <steinex@nognu.de>
Message-Id: <20060509110444.95acb749.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
In-Reply-To: <20060509141318.88A0FB822@shodan.nognu.de>
References: <000a01c67362$f3d1f3d0$01010101@avalon.lan>
	<200605091622.30492.nvass@teledomenet.gr>
	<20060509141318.88A0FB822@shodan.nognu.de>
Organization: Collaborative Fusion
X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.2.4 (GTK+ 2.8.17; i386-portbld-freebsd6.0)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: nospam@mgedv.net, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, nvass@teledomenet.gr
Subject: Re: kern.randompid: jot generation senseful?
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 15:05:32 -0000

On Tue, 9 May 2006 16:13:18 +0200
Frank Steinborn <steinex@nognu.de> wrote:

> Nikos Vassiliadis wrote:
> > Isn't kern.randompid a boolean? TRUE or FALSE?
> 
> No.
> 
> > It is just on or off. 1 means PIDs are random.
> > 0 means PIDs are sequential. to be exact, everything
> > not being 0, is TRUE.
> 
> That is not true. Peter Pentchev once wrote:
> 
> "The kern.randompid sysctl is not a boolean flag, but an estimate of
> the random value that will be added to each newly created pid. For
> more information, read the comments in src/sys/kern/kern_fork.c before
> the sysctl_kern_randompid() function (around line 150). The function
> itself ignores sysctl settings of less than 2."

Yes, but constantly changing the setting is unneeded.  Simply set it
to something large, like 10000, and a random number between 2 and 10000
will be added to the pid of each new child.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.