entropy

[Tony Nelson]

On 10-01-07 12:40:02, Roberto Ragusa wrote:
> Luca wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >  if I simply write to /dev/random, will that increase the entropy 
> > of my  system? (I'm assuming that the data I'm writing are random 
> > and that somehow I got them).
> 
> Wikipedia says so.
> 
> My tests say no.
> 
> In particular this brutal approach does not increase the entropy
>   cat /dev/urandom >/dev/random
> (it is stupid to do that, I know, but it's just a test)
 ...

`man 4 random` says that the current entropy can be read and written 
from /dev/urandom, not /dev/random.  This is used to preserver entropy 
across reboots.

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