Re: getrandom and getentropy

[Taylor R Campbell <riastradh%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

> Date: Sun, 10 May 2020 22:10:55 +0000
> From: maya%NetBSD.org@localhost
> 
> I still don't find the getrandom man page you provided to be good, it
> talks about "/dev/random behaviour" which is something you've changed to
> not have this behaviour.

Can you be specific?

The phrase `/dev/random behaviour' does not appear in the man page I
wrote, but the behaviour of getrandom(..., GRND_RANDOM) and the
behaviour of reads from /dev/random are exactly the same in Linux
since getrandom was introduced, and in the patch I proposed, so I'm
not sure what the issue is.

I tried to emphasize that GRND_RANDOM is provided only for source
compatibility with Linux and should generally be avoided:

  `This is provided mainly for source compatibility with Linux; there
   is essentially no reason to ever use it.'
  `(No examples of GRND_RANDOM because it is not useful.)'
  `GRND_RANDOM is a little silly.'

But perhaps I left something in that is still confusing and/or gives
the impression that GRND_RANDOM _should_ be used for some
applications; if so, please let me know where?

It's also entirely possible that I'm so steeped in this that what I
wrote is unclear for anyone who is not so steeped in it.  Concrete
suggestions or feedback about places where the prose I wrote remains
confusing are welcome.