.\" .\" Copyright (c) 2002 Mark R V Murray .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, .\" BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; .\" LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED .\" AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, .\" OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd February 6, 2002 .Dt RANDOM_HARVEST 9 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm random_harvest .Nd gather entropy from the kernel for the entropy device .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/types.h .In sys/random.h .Ft void .Fo random_harvest .Fa "void *entropy" .Fa "u_int size" .Fa "u_int bits" .Fa "u_int frac" .Fa "enum esource source" .Fc .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn random_harvest function is used by device drivers and other kernel processes to pass data that is considered (at least partially) stochastic to the entropy device. .Pp The caller should pass a pointer (to no more than 16 bytes) of the .Dq random data in .Fa entropy . The argument .Fa size contains the number of bytes pointed to. The caller should .Em "very conservatively" estimate the number of random bits in the sample, and pass this in .Fa bits or .Fa frac . If the estimated number of bits per sample is an integer, then .Fa bits is used, and .Fa frac is 0. Otherwise, for low-entropy samples, .Dq fractional entropy can be supplied in .Fa frac . (This is considered to be .Fa frac / 1024 bits of entropy.) The .Fa source is chosen from .Dv RANDOM_WRITE , RANDOM_KEYBOARD , RANDOM_MOUSE , RANDOM_NET and .Dv RANDOM_INTERRUPT , and is used to indicate the source of the entropy. .Pp Interrupt harvesting has been simplified for the kernel programmer. If a device driver registers an interrupt handler with .Xr BUS_SETUP_INTR 9 or .Xr bus_setup_intr 9 , then it is only necessary to include the .Dv INTR_ENTROPY bit in the .Fa flags argument to have that interrupt source be used for entropy harvesting. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr random 4 , .Xr BUS_SETUP_INTR 9 .Sh AUTHORS The .Fx .Xr random 4 entropy device and supporting documentation was written by .An Mark R V Murray .