Re: Re: Still wondering about random numbers...
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
From: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
To: "Dr. Evil" <drevil@sidereal.kz>
Cc: bruno@wolff.to, lockhart@fourpalms.org, pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Date: 2001-08-07T22:44:10Z
Lists: pgsql-general
> I'm the one who originally posted this question, and I agree, you have > a very good point. /dev/random relies on a pool of entropy, which is > limited. Applications which require a large volume of low-quality > random numbers (perhaps for rendering in a video game) should > definitely not use /dev/random, but applications which require a small > amount of high-quality randomness (generating cryptographic session > keys perhaps) should use it. PG should have both calls available. If > anyone has written a C function which calls the crypto-random > generator, which I could link in, if you would mail it to me, I would > be most appreciative, because I am using this to generate > cryptographic challenges, session keys and the like, which really do > need crypto-quality random numbers. Isn't /dev/random best used for seeding the random number generator, rather than for getting random number? -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000 + If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026