On 8/25/06, Hubert Chan <hubert@uhoreg.ca> wrote:
| +#elif defined( __MACH__ )|| defined( __GNUC__ )
| int fd=open("/dev/random",O_RDONLY);
| read(fd,&tick,sizeof(tick));
| closesocket(fd);
Err, I don't think that __GNUC__ actually guarantees the presence of
/dev/random. So this patch does not seem to be correct.
(Although /dev/random, if you have it, is probably a better source of
randomness than rdtsc, or gethrtime.)
So what would be the alternative? Would we have to use a makefile hack (e.g. test for the existence of /dev/random and set a compile flag) or something to figure out what random seed we should use? Also would it be OK to include this as a Debian patch, esp. because at the moment Debian doesn't have any non-glibc ports?
| -#else | -# error Need some way to seed the random number generator | -#endif | +#endif If it really does need a proper random seed, then you should not be getting rid of the compilation error. It may compile correctly, but it will not work as intended.
I do wonder what it needs the proper random seed for though. If anyone can come up with a solution I'll be grateful. -- Andrew Donnellan http://andrewdonnellan.com http://ajdlinux.blogspot.com Jabber - ajdlinux@jabber.org.au GPG - hkp://subkeys.pgp.net 0x5D4C0C58 ------------------------------- Member of Linux Australia - http://linux.org.au Debian user - http://debian.org Get free rewards - http://ezyrewards.com/?id=23484 OpenNIC user - http://www.opennic.unrated.net