On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 01:32:29PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > On Wed, 20 Sept 2023 at 13:21, Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > It seems that what you're claiming (in addition to the RNG always being > > initialized quickly on platforms that are "relevant", whatever that means) is > > that once the RNG is "initialized", there's no need to reseed it anymore. > > No. You are literally putting words in my mouth that I at no point > even implied. You're making up an argument. > > I *LITERALLY* am asking a very simple question: WHO DO YOU EVEN CARE > ABOUT THIS "IMMEDIATE" EFFECT. > > Give me a real reason. Give me *any* reason. > > Don't try to turn this into some other discussion. I'm asking WHY DOES > ANY OF THIS MATTER? > > The immediacy has changed several times, as you yourself lined up. And > as far as I can tell, none of this matter in the least. > > > The question is, given that, shouldn't the RNG also reseed right > > away when userspace explicitly adds something to it > > I don't see that there is any "given" at all. > > We do re-seed regularly. I'm not arguing against that. > > I'm literally arguing against applying random changes without giving > any actual reason for them. > > Which is why I'm asking "why do you care"? Give em a *reason*. Why > would a user space write matter at all? > > It was why I also asked about entropy. Because *if* you argue that the > user-space write contains entropy, then that would be a reason. > > You didn't. > > You argue that the current behavior hasn't been the universal behavior. I agree. > > But considering that we've switched behaviors apparently at least > three times, and at no point did it make any difference, my argument > is really that without a *REASON*, why would we switch behavior *four* > times? > > Is it just "four changes is better than three"? See my first email where I explained the problems with the current behavior. Especially the third paragraph. I'll just wait until Jason has a chance to reply. This discussion clearly isn't achieving anything with just us two. - Eric
