[Python-Dev] BDFL ruling request: should we block forever waiting for high-quality random bits?

[Nikolaus Rath]

On Jun 09 2016, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:
> On 06/09/2016 07:38 PM, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
>> On Jun 09 2016, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:
>>> Nope, I want the old behavior back.  os.urandom() should read
>>> /dev/random if getrandom() would block.  As the British say, "it
>>> should do what it says on the tin".
>> Aeh, what the tin says is "return random bytes".
>
> What the tin says is "urandom", which has local man pages that dictate
> exactly how it behaves. 
[...]

I disagree. The authoritative source for the behavior of the Python
'urandom' function is the Python documentation, not the Linux manpage
for the "urandom" device.

And https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/os.html says first and foremost:

 os.urandom(n)¶

    Return a string of n random bytes suitable for cryptographic use.


Best,
-Nikolaus

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