[issue26839] Python 3.5 running on Linux kernel 3.17+ can block at startup or on importing the random module on getrandom()

[STINNER Victor]

STINNER Victor added the comment:

>> The current behavior is that Python *will not start at all* if getrandom() blocks (because the hash secret initialization fails).
> It starts jsut fine, it just can possible takes awhile.

In my experience, connecting to a VM using SSH with low entropy can take longer than 1 minute. As an user, I considered that the host was down. Longer than 1 minute is simply too long.

It's unclear to me if getrandom() can succeed (return random bytes) on embedded devices without hardware RNG. Can it take longer than 1 minute?

Is it possible that getrandom() simply blocks forever?

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue26839>
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