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authorThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>2011-05-14 12:06:36 +0200
committerThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>2011-05-14 12:06:36 +0200
commita18f22a968de17b29f2310cdb7ba69163e65ec15 (patch)
treea7d56d88fad5e444d7661484109758a2f436129e /drivers/char/random.c
parenta1c57e0fec53defe745e64417eacdbd3618c3e66 (diff)
parent798778b8653f64b7b2162ac70eca10367cff6ce8 (diff)
Merge branch 'consolidate-clksrc-i8253' of master.kernel.org:~rmk/linux-2.6-arm into timers/clocksource
Conflicts: arch/ia64/kernel/cyclone.c arch/mips/kernel/i8253.c arch/x86/kernel/i8253.c Reason: Resolve conflicts so further cleanups do not conflict further Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Diffstat (limited to 'drivers/char/random.c')
-rw-r--r--drivers/char/random.c15
1 files changed, 11 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/drivers/char/random.c b/drivers/char/random.c
index 72a4fcb1774..d4ddeba5668 100644
--- a/drivers/char/random.c
+++ b/drivers/char/random.c
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@
* void add_input_randomness(unsigned int type, unsigned int code,
* unsigned int value);
* void add_interrupt_randomness(int irq);
+ * void add_disk_randomness(struct gendisk *disk);
*
* add_input_randomness() uses the input layer interrupt timing, as well as
* the event type information from the hardware.
@@ -136,9 +137,15 @@
* inputs to the entropy pool. Note that not all interrupts are good
* sources of randomness! For example, the timer interrupts is not a
* good choice, because the periodicity of the interrupts is too
- * regular, and hence predictable to an attacker. Disk interrupts are
- * a better measure, since the timing of the disk interrupts are more
- * unpredictable.
+ * regular, and hence predictable to an attacker. Network Interface
+ * Controller interrupts are a better measure, since the timing of the
+ * NIC interrupts are more unpredictable.
+ *
+ * add_disk_randomness() uses what amounts to the seek time of block
+ * layer request events, on a per-disk_devt basis, as input to the
+ * entropy pool. Note that high-speed solid state drives with very low
+ * seek times do not make for good sources of entropy, as their seek
+ * times are usually fairly consistent.
*
* All of these routines try to estimate how many bits of randomness a
* particular randomness source. They do this by keeping track of the
@@ -725,7 +732,7 @@ static ssize_t extract_entropy(struct entropy_store *r, void *buf,
size_t nbytes, int min, int rsvd);
/*
- * This utility inline function is responsible for transfering entropy
+ * This utility inline function is responsible for transferring entropy
* from the primary pool to the secondary extraction pool. We make
* sure we pull enough for a 'catastrophic reseed'.
*/