Re: sort --random-sort

[Frederik Eaton]

On Sun, Nov 27, 2005 at 10:05:08PM -0800, Paul Eggert wrote:
> I'm puzzled as to why, in this day and age, shred (and any other
> programs that might need lots of hard-to-guess random numbers) needs
> to have its own random number generator.  Why can't such programs just
> read /dev/urandom?  Is it because they need to fall back on something
> on hosts that lack /dev/urandom?
> 
> Also, the more I think about it, the less I like folding this stuff
> into 'sort'.  It really should be a separate program, as it's an ill
> fit for 'sort'.

No, we've already had that discussion, long ago. You had a chance to
make your arguments before I did all this work. I even made the
implementation cryptographically secure to satisfy you. Then we
decided it was a good idea. Now I'm wondering if you've just been
trying to waste my time. Well, you've succeeded. It's been a very
unpleasant experience working with you.

Frederik