Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file

From	Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file
Date	2016-02-22 15:26 -0800
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<87wppw2uoq.fsf@jester.gateway.pace.com> (permalink)
References	(10 earlier) <87vb5gmtgj.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> <mailman.48.1456170070.20994.python-list@python.org> <87povomq95.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> <874md04fsl.fsf@jester.gateway.pace.com> <87lh6cmodr.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net>

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Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> writes:
>>>> http://www.2uo.de/myths-about-urandom/
>> I don't know what web pamphlet you mean,
> The only one linked above.

Oh, I wouldn't have called that a pamphlet.  I could quibble with the
writing style but the points in the article are basically correct.

> getrandom(2) is a good interface that distinguishes between the flag
> values
>    0                            =>  /dev/urandom
>    GRND_RANDOM                  =>  /dev/random
>    GRND_RANDOM | GRND_NONBLOCK  =>  /dev/random (O_NONBLOCK)
> However, although os.urandom() delegates to getrandom(), the
> documentation suggests it uses the flag value 0 (/dev/urandom).

Flag value 0 does the right thing and blocks if the entropy pool is not
yet initialized, and doesn't block after that.  That fixes the errors of
both urandom (fails to block before there's enough entropy) and random
(blocks even after there's enough entropy).  The getrandom doc is also
misleading about the workings of the entropy pools but that's ok.  The
actual algorithm is described here:

  http://www.pinkas.net/PAPERS/gpr06.pdf

It's pretty clumsy but discussions about replacing it have gotten bogged
down several times.  OTOH maybe I'm out of date on this.

>> The random/urandom interface was poorly designed and misleadingly
>> documented.
> It could be better I suppose, but I never found it particularly bad. The
> nice thing about it is that it is readily usable in shell scripts.

DJB describes the problems:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/randomness-generation/4opmDHA6_3w/__TyKhbnNWsJ

Regarding shell scripts, it should be a simple matter to put a wrapper
around the system call.

Thread

Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2016-02-22 10:11 -0800
  Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-22 18:17 +0000
    Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 05:25 +1100
      Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-22 18:39 +0000
        Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-22 20:48 +0200
          Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-23 10:37 +1100
            Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 00:08 +0000
              Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 11:18 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 00:26 +0000
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 11:33 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 00:44 +0000
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 11:56 +1100
        Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 06:04 +1100
          Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-22 11:22 -0800
            Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-23 10:45 +1100
          Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-22 19:22 +0000
            Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-22 21:32 +0200
              Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Random832 <random832@fastmail.com> - 2016-02-22 14:41 -0500
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-22 22:41 +0200
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-22 13:05 -0800
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-22 23:22 +0200
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-22 15:26 -0800
              Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-23 11:33 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-23 08:54 +0200
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-22 23:18 -0800
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-23 21:04 +0200
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-24 12:40 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-24 09:20 +0200
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-25 16:38 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-02-25 08:54 +0200
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-25 19:21 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-25 10:05 +0000
            Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 06:37 +1100
            Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-23 11:03 +1100
              Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Jon Ribbens <jon+usenet@unequivocal.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 00:11 +0000
              Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-22 18:27 -0800
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-02-23 13:53 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-22 19:26 -0800
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 08:09 +0000
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-02-23 00:22 -0800
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2016-02-23 09:40 +0100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-02-23 09:00 +0000
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2016-02-23 15:14 +0000
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-25 11:41 +1100
                Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Random832 <random832@fastmail.com> - 2016-02-25 10:03 -0500
    Re: Make a unique filesystem path, without creating the file Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-02-23 11:18 +1100

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