New linux kernel getrandom call seems to be missing in Fedora. Anyone know why?

stan stanl-fedorauser at vfemail.net
Sat Jul 25 16:18:54 UTC 2015


There's a new getrandom call in the kernel since 3.19.  When I look in
the /usr/include/linux/random.h, it is there, but commented out.
Since this call uses /dev/urandom or /dev/random, it is far better than
the rand () and random () calls, which are linear congruential and
repeat after only 2**31 calls.  The PRNG in the kernel is a modified
mersenne twister, and the repeat is, from memory, ~2**1700.  Not to
mention that it is modified, and so is better.

Here's a link to an online man page.
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/getrandom.2.html

Was there a security issue?  Or is it just not ready for prime time?


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