xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/random_harvest.9 (revision 2008043f386721d58158e37e0d7e50df8095942d)
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26.Dd August 26, 2018
27.Dt RANDOM_HARVEST 9
28.Os
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm random_harvest
31.Nd gather entropy from the kernel for the entropy device
32.Sh SYNOPSIS
33.In sys/types.h
34.In sys/random.h
35.Ft void
36.Fo random_harvest_direct
37.Fa "void *entropy"
38.Fa "u_int size"
39.Fa "enum esource source"
40.Fc
41.Ft void
42.Fo random_harvest_fast
43.Fa "void *entropy"
44.Fa "u_int size"
45.Fa "enum esource source"
46.Fc
47.Ft void
48.Fo random_harvest_queue
49.Fa "void *entropy"
50.Fa "u_int size"
51.Fa "enum esource source"
52.Fc
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The
55.Fn random_harvest_*
56functions are used by device drivers
57and other kernel processes to pass data
58that is considered (at least partially) stochastic
59to the entropy device.
60.Pp
61The caller should pass
62a pointer pointing to the
63.Dq random
64data in
65.Fa entropy .
66The argument
67.Fa size
68contains the number of bytes pointed to.
69The
70.Fa source
71is chosen from one of
72the values enumerated in
73.Pa sys/dev/random.h .
74and is used to indicate the source of the entropy.
75.Pp
76The
77.Fo random_harvest_direct
78.Fc
79variant is used
80for early harvesting
81before any multitasking
82is enabled.
83.Pp
84The
85.Fn random_harvest_fast
86variant is used
87by sources that
88should not take
89a performance hit
90from harvesting,
91as they are high-rate
92sources.
93Some entropy is sacrificed,
94but the high rate of supply
95will compensate for this.
96.Pp
97The
98.Fn random_harvest_queue
99variant is used
100for general harvesting
101and is the default
102choice for most entropy sources
103such as interrupts
104or console events.
105.Pp
106Interrupt harvesting has been
107in part simplified
108for the kernel programmer.
109If a device driver registers an interrupt handler
110with
111.Xr BUS_SETUP_INTR 9
112or
113.Xr bus_setup_intr 9 ,
114then it is only necessary to
115include the
116.Dv INTR_ENTROPY
117bit in the
118.Fa flags
119argument to have that interrupt source
120be used for entropy harvesting.
121This should be done wherever practicable.
122.Sh SEE ALSO
123.Xr random 4 ,
124.Xr BUS_SETUP_INTR 9
125.Sh AUTHORS
126The
127.Fx
128.Xr random 4
129entropy device and supporting documentation was written by
130.An Mark R V Murray .
131