[Ecls-list] ECL start and random numbers

[Philipp Marek]

I just saw that ECL read /dev/urandom on startup, obviously to initialize its
random number generator.

 * Is that required by the specification? eg. SBCL gives always the same
   numbers, unless (seed-random-state T) is called (or (make-random-state T)).

 * ECL reads (on my machine) 8kB from /dev/urandom - but, if I read
   init_random_state() correctly, half of that is immediately dropped.

 * If the randomization at startup is wanted, how about reading much less
   (eg. 3 words) and using a pseudo-random-number generator to fill the
   random state?


My reasoning is that most people don't need cryptographically secure [1]
random numbers; if they need some, they can (and for portability _should_)
always initialize the state themselves.

Certainly there's no need to read 8kB of randomness, is there? That more or
less guarantees that any instance of ECL that tries to run GPG or ssh-keygen
has to wait until the entropy in the OS is replenished.


I'd be willing to provide a patch for the third point above - if there's a
chance to get it included.


Regards,

Phil


Ad 1: yes, it's "only" /dev/urandom, but this uses entropy as well (if
one is available).