random: create add_device_randomness() interface
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Wed, 4 Jul 2012 15:16:01 +0000 (11:16 -0400)
committerBen Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
Thu, 9 Aug 2012 23:24:43 +0000 (00:24 +0100)
commit369e589b542f8ef0d56a95350997819d1b2222fd
treea6cae5f3ad995badcd72f1e4b41d41269a646d4a
parentf4fe3e0cc3eb906174269681102860f22ed76d51
random: create add_device_randomness() interface

commit a2080a67abe9e314f9e9c2cc3a4a176e8a8f8793 upstream.

Add a new interface, add_device_randomness() for adding data to the
random pool that is likely to differ between two devices (or possibly
even per boot).  This would be things like MAC addresses or serial
numbers, or the read-out of the RTC. This does *not* add any actual
entropy to the pool, but it initializes the pool to different values
for devices that might otherwise be identical and have very little
entropy available to them (particularly common in the embedded world).

[ Modified by tytso to mix in a timestamp, since there may be some
  variability caused by the time needed to detect/configure the hardware
  in question. ]

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
drivers/char/random.c
include/linux/random.h