Package: manpages-dev
Version: 2.02-2
Severity: minor
Man page for rand(3) claims the following:
FreeBSD adds a function
void sranddev(void);
that initializes the seed for their bad random generator rand() with
a value obtained from their good random generator random(). Strange.
This implies that FreeBSD's sranddev() uses the output of random() to seed
rand's PRNG. If that were the case, it would indeed be "strange", since
random(3) is merely an entry point to another generator, which also needs to
be seeded, which would make sranddev useless.
But that is, of course, not the case. From the FreeBSD manual:
The sranddev() function initializes a seed using the random(4) random
number device which returns good random numbers, suitable for crypto-
graphic use.
That makes a lot more sense: sranddev seeds rand's PRNG from the random
number *device* which gets entropy from the system's physical interfaces.
random(4) referred to here is the random *device* which has nothing to do
with the random() *function* (which would be referred to as random(3)).
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.11-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Versions of packages manpages-dev depends on:
ii manpages 2.02-2 Manual pages about using a GNU/Lin
manpages-dev recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
