Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
Hi, When i look at / in a standard installation like : FreeBSD XXX 7.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008 r...@logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 There is only 1 file, named entropy : -rw--- 1 root wheel 4096 Dec 11 17:36 entropy I can't find any reference to that file in FreeBSD doc. Any reference to it ? What is it used for ? I have look in RANDOM area, but no reference... Do i have to keep it read/write ? Can i put it in /var instead of / to be able to keep / read-only ? Thanks a lot, Best regards, ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 02:08:10PM +0100, Bernard Dugas wrote: Hi, When i look at / in a standard installation like : FreeBSD XXX 7.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008 r...@logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 There is only 1 file, named entropy : -rw--- 1 root wheel 4096 Dec 11 17:36 entropy I can't find any reference to that file in FreeBSD doc. Any reference to it ? What is it used for ? I have look in RANDOM area, but no reference... Do i have to keep it read/write ? Can i put it in /var instead of / to be able to keep / read-only ? It is used to safely seed the random number generator, I believe. A quick search through /etc/rc.d/* and /etc/defaults/rc.conf reveals that you can set $entropy_file in /etc/rc.conf to anything you like, although a comment suggests # Set to NO to disable caching entropy through reboots. # /var/db/entropy-file is preferred if / is not avail. So yes, it seems you could move it off / if you want. Dan -- Daniel Bye _ ASCII ribbon campaign ( ) - against HTML, vCards and X - proprietary attachments in e-mail / \ pgpzUNzpkVMxg.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
Wojciech Puchar wrote: -rw--- 1 root wheel 4096 Dec 11 17:36 entropy I can't find any reference to that file in FreeBSD doc. Any reference to it ? What is it used for ? I have look in RANDOM area, but no reference... at startup it seeds random generator, every 11 minutes and at shutdown it's saved from random generator. it's here to make random generator more random - not starting clean at boot. Thanks a lot ! 1- How may i suggest/learn to add this info in the random generator man page, so that a search in doc gives the right result ? 2- As / will be mounted read-only, how can i tell the ramdom generator to put this /entropy file somewhere in /var, where i think it should be ? Or is there any tricky hidden problem ? Thanks a lot, Best regards, -- Bernard DUGAS Mobile +33 615 333 770 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:07:48 +0100 (CET) Wojciech Puchar woj...@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl wrote: at startup it seeds random generator, every 11 minutes and at shutdown it's saved from random generator. Only at shutdown, the entropy stored every eleven minutes is in /var/db/entropy/ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
boot. Thanks a lot ! 1- How may i suggest/learn to add this info in the random generator man page, so that a search in doc gives the right result ? use sent-pr 2- As / will be mounted read-only, how can i tell the ramdom generator to put this /entropy file somewhere in /var, where i think it should be ? Or is there any tricky hidden problem ? man rc.conf seek entropy_file and entropy_dir ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
shutdown it's saved from random generator. Only at shutdown, the entropy stored every eleven minutes is in /var/db/entropy/ thanks for correction. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:23:05 +0100 Bernard Dugas bern...@dugas-family.org wrote: 2- As / will be mounted read-only, how can i tell the ramdom generator to put this /entropy file somewhere in /var, where i think it should be ? Or is there any tricky hidden problem ? It has to be on the root partition as it's used in the early stage of the boot before any other partitions are mounted, but like like I said there are other entropy files that are applied a little later as a boot, and on most machines enough entropy will be generated from the disk interrupts to suffice anyway. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:10 +0100 Bernard Dugas bern...@dugas-family.org wrote: Hi, When i look at / in a standard installation like : FreeBSD XXX 7.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE #0: Sun Feb 24 19:59:52 UTC 2008 r...@logan.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 There is only 1 file, named entropy : -rw--- 1 root wheel 4096 Dec 11 17:36 entropy I can't find any reference to that file in FreeBSD doc. It contains random numbers that are written-out at shutdown and used to seed /dev/random on the next boot. Do i have to keep it read/write ? Can i put it in /var instead of / to be able to keep / read-only ? It has to be on the root-partition, if it's going to be used. You can set entropy_file=NO if you don't want it. There are additional entropy files under /var, and the system generates it's own entropy during the boot stage, which is good enough for normal cases. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
-rw--- 1 root wheel 4096 Dec 11 17:36 entropy I can't find any reference to that file in FreeBSD doc. Any reference to it ? What is it used for ? I have look in RANDOM area, but no reference... at startup it seeds random generator, every 11 minutes and at shutdown it's saved from random generator. it's here to make random generator more random - not starting clean at boot. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
Wojciech Puchar wrote: 2- As / will be mounted read-only, how can i tell the ramdom generator to put this /entropy file somewhere in /var, where i think it should be ? Or is there any tricky hidden problem ? man rc.conf seek entropy_file and entropy_dir Thanks, detail is available in /etc/default/rc.conf : entropy_file=/entropy # Set to NO to disable caching entropy through reboots. # /var/db/entropy-file is preferred if / is not avail. It means that i can put it in /var when L is read-only. There should be no problem as the file is choosen in rc.conf, so after /var is mounted. As this is for diskless station, it would be fun to change the entropy file through the nfs server RANDOM, even better thant at each boot :-) Best regards, -- Bernard DUGAS Mobile +33 615 333 770 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
Thank you RW, i am new on the list, i didn't answer you because i didn't received your answer while i received others, don't know why yet. I would be very interested to find a large but right view in the man documentation of what is happening exactly to this poor lost file :-) The etc/default/rc.conf detailled file is not searchable in the man page, nor the default /entropy file. Best regards, -- Bernard DUGAS Mobile +33 615 333 770 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Any doc reference on /entropy file ?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:39:56 +0100 Bernard Dugas bern...@dugas-family.org wrote: Wojciech Puchar wrote: 2- As / will be mounted read-only, how can i tell the ramdom generator to put this /entropy file somewhere in /var, where i think it should be ? Or is there any tricky hidden problem ? man rc.conf seek entropy_file and entropy_dir Thanks, detail is available in /etc/default/rc.conf : entropy_file=/entropy # Set to NO to disable caching entropy through reboots. # /var/db/entropy-file is preferred if / is not avail. It means that i can put it in /var when L is read-only. There should be no problem as the file is choosen in rc.conf, so after /var is mounted. Whatever it says in /etc/default/rc.conf, /entropy is read before /var is mounted. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
