Re: [patch #6797] shred option to use internal RNG

[Pádraig Brady]

Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> URL:
>   <http://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?6797>
> 
>                  Summary: shred option to use internal RNG
> 
> Our company is looking at using GNU shred to wipe customer data from RMA'd
> drives in our systems.
> 
> One thing we have noticed is that shred runs about 90% slower if /dev/urandom
> exists versus when it does not.  Researching this, it seems this is because
> gl/lib/randread.c will use an internal RNG when null is passed into
> randread_new, and /dev/urandom cannot be opened.

Yep, I can only get 3MB/s from my /dev/urandom
However I don't think it's designed for bulk generation of random data.
I haven't read your patch but it would be great
if we didn't have another option for this.
Instead could we use /dev/urandom if available
just to (periodically) seed our internal PRNG?

cheers,
Pádraig.