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diff --git a/doc/librandom/index.html b/doc/librandom/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b721594 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/librandom/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en" /> + <title>skalibs: the random library interface</title + <meta name="Description" content="skalibs: the random library interface" /> + <meta name="Keywords" content="skalibs library random librandom random.h" /> + <!-- <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://skarnet.org/default.css" /> --> + </head> +<body> + +<p> +<a href="../libskarnet.html">libskarnet</a><br /> +<a href="../index.html">skalibs</a><br /> +<a href="http://skarnet.org/software/">Software</a><br /> +<a href="http://skarnet.org/">skarnet.org</a> +</p> + +<h1> The <tt>random</tt> library interface </h1> + +<p> +<tt>librandom</tt> is a small library designed to provide an +interface to some reasonable-quality pseudorandom number +generation. Some libcs have a bad +<tt>random()</tt> implementation; <tt>librandom</tt> is designed +to use system pseudorandom number generation when it's provided +via <tt>/dev/random</tt> and <tt>/dev/urandom</tt>, and to use +a good default PRNG otherwise. +</p> + +<p> + <tt>librandom</tt> also supports +<a href="http://egd.sourceforge.net/">EGD</a>. If you have built +skalibs with <tt>--enable-egd</tt>, then the librandom +primitives will try and connect to an EGD service to get random bytes +if there is no kernel-based entropy generator such as <tt>/dev/random</tt>. +If the EGD connection fails, a SURF PRNG is used. +</p> + +<h2> Compiling </h2> + +<ul> + <li> Use <tt>#include <skalibs/random.h></tt> </li> +</ul> + +<h2> Programming </h2> + +<p> + You should refer to the <tt>skalibs/random.h</tt> header for the exact +function prototypes. +</p> + + <h3> High quality, cryptographically strong random data </h3> + +<pre> + unsigned char c ; + unsigned int max ; + unsigned int n ; + unsigned int b ; + char data[at least b] ; + int r ; + + goodrandom_init() ; + c = goodrandom_char() ; + n = goodrandom_int(max) ; + r = goodrandom_string(data, b) ; + goodrandom_finish() ; +</pre> + +<p> + <tt>goodrandom_init()</tt> becomes optional with skalibs-0.43. + It is recommended that you let the library perform cleanups after you +have used it, by calling <tt>goodrandom_finish()</tt>. +</p> + +<ul> + <li> <tt>goodrandom_char()</tt> returns a random character </li> + <li> <tt>goodrandom_int(<em>max</em>)</tt> returns a random integer +between 0 and <em>max</em>-1 </li> + <li> <tt>goodrandom_string(<em>data</em>, <em>b</em>)</tt> puts +<em>b</em> random bytes in <em>data</em>, which must be preallocated. +It returns <em>b</em> if it succeeds, or a non-negative integer lesser +than <em>b</em> if it fails for any reason. </li> +</ul> + +<p> + If you have neither <tt>/dev/random</tt> nor EGD, a software PRNG is +used. This PRNG is based on the +<a href="http://cr.yp.to/antiforgery.html#surf">SURF</a> function, which +is unpredictable enough for most uses. +</p> + + <h3> Lower quality random data </h3> + +<p> + It works basically the same, by replacing <tt>goodrandom_*</tt> with +<tt>badrandom_*</tt>. It uses <tt>/dev/urandom</tt> on systems that +support it; on systems that do not, but support EGD, non-blocking calls +to EGD are made ; if that is not enough, or EGD is not supported, +the SURF generator is used. +</p> + +<p> + The point of <tt>badrandom</tt> is to get random bytes <em>instantly</em>, +even at the expense of quality; whereas <tt>goodrandom</tt> always returns +high-quality random bytes, but may block if entropy is insufficient. In +practice, in spite of its name, <tt>badrandom</tt> will return quite +unpredictable pseudo-random data, so <tt>goodrandom</tt> should be used +only when paranoia is the rule and blocking is an option. +</p> + +</body> +</html> |