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Does anyone have any idea why Linux has a distinction between /dev/random and /dev/urandom? Legacy adherence to some defunct interface? Ignorance on the part o

• bowyakka 12y ago
  I think its because linux got there first and designed these interfaces To quote Ted Tso (author of the above patch and the original writer of /dev/random in the first place) The two other interfaces are two character devices /dev/random and * /dev/urandom. /dev/random is suitable for use when very high * quality randomness is desired (for example, for key generation or * one-time pads), as it will only return a maximum of the number of * bits of randomness (as estimated by the random number generator) * contained in the entropy pool. * * The /dev/urandom device does not have this limit, and will return * as many bytes as are requested. As more and more random bytes are * requested without giving time for the entropy pool to recharge, * this will result in random numbers that are merely cryptographically * strong. For many applications, however, this is acceptable.