On Thu, 13 Jan 2005, Andy Polyakov wrote:
> > ./Configure no-threads --prefix=/dev/env/DJDIR DJGPP
>
> Just occured to me. What if end-user system doesn't have /dev catalog on
> the current drive? Would an application succeed to open /dev/urandom$
> even then? In other words wouldn't it more appropriate to check upon
> "urandom$" without *any* prefix in pathname?
The "/dev" directory is a "special" directory for DJGPP. This is a
virtual directory, reserved for use by the DJGPP system. The user
shouldn't have anything in a "/dev" directory. The DJGPP system
converts "/dev/d/" to "d:/" and converts "/dev/env/whatever" to the
environment variable "whatever". So it doesn't matter what a user
has there, unless they specifically created a /dev directory and put
another file there with the same name. The virtual "/dev" directory
was created specifically to make it easier to port unix-based source
code to DJGPP.
There is an alternative. "Noise" creates other names for the
random/urandom devices, known as "RANDOM$" and "URANDOM$". We could use
those names instead of "/dev/random$" and "/dev/urandom$" if you prefer.
I don't think it makes a difference.
> > OpenSSL requires a source of random data in order to perform secure
> > cryptography.
>
> It's not OpenSSL specific thing and cryptography has to be secure to be
> called one. FAQ really has more appropriate wording: "Cryptographic
> software needs a source of unpredictable data to work correctly."
Good. I like the wording from the FAQ. It is better.
Doug
--
Doug Kaufman
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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