[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH 2/2] configure: libbsd support for arc4random()

Ganesh Ajjanagadde gajjanag at mit.edu
Tue Dec 8 13:34:51 CET 2015


On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 7:27 AM, wm4 <nfxjfg at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Sun,  6 Dec 2015 22:56:33 -0500
> Ganesh Ajjanagadde <gajjanagadde at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On non-BSD machines, there exists a package libbsd for providing BSD
>> functionality. This can be used to get support for arc4random.
>>
>> Thus, an opt-in --enable-libbsd is added to configure for this
>> functionality.
>>
>> Tested on GNU/Linux.
>>
>
> This doesn't seem worth the trouble at all. Who is even going to use
> it, and why, and what additional hidden bugs will it cause?

arc4random is a far superior interface, in that it can never fail. See
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/entropy.txt for
details.
As for hidden bugs, apart from configuration/detection issues, I see none.
If anything, it is easier to use /dev/urandom incorrectly.
Ultimately any code change is a tradeoff, with different people
feeling differently about various things.
I still feel that it is worth inclusion due to its technical merits.

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