> > One use would be for low level file (device) acesss as mentioned in the
> > 'wipe' thread. Compounding two pipes, to strip 4,000,000,000 line feeds,
> > from using the 'yes' | 'tr' is slow and sloppy. It also assumes both
> > commands are actually available.
>
> They are available on every Unixy system I know. If not, you can cobble
> something up using the shell (a while loop + echo). Or you do have some
> compiler at hand, so you can write a C (or whatever) proggie, using
> random(3) as needed.
I don't know where one would need random to implement a /dev/repeat.
If you are refering to /dev/random, random(3) doesn't give you random
numbers that are nearly the same quality as the /dev/random version
(that's why they call it pseudo-random).
<man 3 random>
The random() function uses a non-linear additive feedback
random number generator employing a default table of size
31 long integers to return successive pseudo-random num-
bers in the range from 0 to RAND_MAX.
</man 3 random>
RFC 1750 is enlightening. Especially "6.2 Non-Hardware Sources of
Randomness" as it deals with the randomness provided by standard hardware.
1750 Randomness Recommendations for Security. D. Eastlake, 3rd, S.
Crocker & J. Schiller. December 1994.
Regards,
Georg
-- Georg Wilckens <durandal@t-online.de> http://home.t-online.de/home/durandal Quantum mechanics - the dream stuff is made of- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/