dd if=/dev/random of=data.bin bs=512 count=1

[Jon Grant]

Hello

Issuing this command, I expected to get a file 4096 bytes in size.
Could someone let me know if I have missed something..? Or is there a
problem with using /dev/random this way?

if I have a count=10 it hangs forever (several hours).

Changing to use /dev/urandom and it generates the file ok.

Please include my email address in replies,  as I'm not a member of this list.

Best regards, Jon

$ dd if=/dev/random of=data.bin bs=512 count=1
0+1 records in
0+1 records out
8 bytes (8 B) copied, 4.47366 s, 0.0 kB/s

$ dd --version
dd (coreutils) 6.10

$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC
2009 i686 GNU/Linux
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