Debian Bug report logs - #459232
manpages: random(4) has inconsistent information about /proc

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg-debian.org@fifthhorseman.net>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: manpages: random(4) has inconsistent information about /proc

Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:35:07 -0500

Package: manpages
Version: 2.67-1
Severity: normal

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random(4) currently says:

   /proc Interface
       The  files  in  the  directory  /proc/sys/kernel/random  (present since
       2.3.16) provide an additional interface to the /dev/random device.

       The read-only file entropy_avail gives  the  available  entropy.   Nor‐
       mally, this will be 4096 (bits), a full entropy pool.

       The  file  poolsize gives the size of the entropy pool.  Normally, this
       will be 512 (bytes).  It can be changed to any value for which an algo‐
       rithm  is  available.  Currently the choices are 32, 64, 128, 256, 512,
       1024, 2048.

but poolsize either appears to be counted in bits, or the range of
choices has changed:

[0 dkg@squeak ~]$ head /proc/sys/kernel/random/{entropy_avail,poolsize}
==> /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail <==
3458

==> /proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize <==
4096

[0 dkg@squeak ~]$ 


Thanks for maintaining the manpages in debian!

Regards,

	--dkg 


- -- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (200, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-3-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

- -- no debconf information

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Message #10 received at 459232@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@googlemail.com>

To: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg-debian.org@fifthhorseman.net>, 459232@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Andries Brouwer <Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl>

Subject: Re: Bug#459232: manpages: random(4) has inconsistent information about /proc

Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:27:27 +0100

Danial (and Andries),

Re http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=459232

> random(4) currently says:
> 
>    /proc Interface
>        The  files  in  the  directory  /proc/sys/kernel/random  (present since
>        2.3.16) provide an additional interface to the /dev/random device.
> 
>        The read-only file entropy_avail gives  the  available  entropy.   Nor
>        mally, this will be 4096 (bits), a full entropy pool.
> 
>        The  file  poolsize gives the size of the entropy pool.  Normally, this
>        will be 512 (bytes).  It can be changed to any value for which an algo
>        rithm  is  available.  Currently the choices are 32, 64, 128, 256, 512,
>        1024, 2048.
> 
> but poolsize either appears to be counted in bits, or the range of
> choices has changed:
> 
> [0 dkg@squeak ~]$ head /proc/sys/kernel/random/{entropy_avail,poolsize}
> ==> /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail <==
> 3458
> 
> ==> /proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize <==
> 4096

It looks like things changed with the move from 2.4 to 2.6.  I've amended
the text describing 'poolsize' according to how I understand the code (in
drivers/char/random.c).  I think Andries knows this area better than me,
and be might be able to confirm/add details:

       The file poolsize gives the size  of  the  entropy  pool.
       The semantics of this file vary across kernel versions:

              Linux 2.4:  This   file  gives  the  size  of  the
                          entropy pool in bytes.  Normally, this
                          file  will  have the value 512, but it
                          is writable, and can be changed to any
                          value for which an algorithm is avail-
                          able.  The choices are  32,  64,  128,
                          256, 512, 1024, or 2048.

              Linux 2.6:  This  file is read-only, and gives the
                          size of the entropy pool in bits.   It
                          contains the value 4096.

These changes will be in upstream 2.76.

Cheers,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Maintainer of the Linux man-pages project
http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Want to report a man-pages bug?  Look here:
http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html

Message #15 received at 459232-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>

To: 459232-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#459232: fixed in manpages 2.76-1

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:47:02 +0000

Source: manpages
Source-Version: 2.76-1

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
manpages, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

manpages-dev_2.76-1_all.deb
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages-dev_2.76-1_all.deb
manpages_2.76-1.diff.gz
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.76-1.diff.gz
manpages_2.76-1.dsc
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.76-1.dsc
manpages_2.76-1_all.deb
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.76-1_all.deb
manpages_2.76.orig.tar.gz
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.76.orig.tar.gz



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 459232@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org> (supplier of updated manpages package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


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Format: 1.7
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:20:57 +0100
Source: manpages
Binary: manpages manpages-dev
Architecture: source all
Version: 2.76-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Martin Schulze <joey@debian.org>
Changed-By: Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>
Description: 
 manpages   - Manual pages about using a GNU/Linux system
 manpages-dev - Manual pages about using GNU/Linux for development
Closes: 149554 236671 333871 348072 405694 435018 454007 459232 462636 462969
Changes: 
 manpages (2.76-1) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     . Add 2.6 details for /proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize to random(4)
       (closes: Bug#459232)
   * Convert changelog and copyright from latin1 to utf8 (closes: Bug#454007)
   * Added override for lintian false positives
   * Properly quote ... and 'at the beginning of a line in stdarg(3) and
     bootparam(7) (closes: Bug#462636)
   * Adjusted proc(5) to not claim using bytes anymore (closes: Bug#462969)
   * Improved examples in bsearch(3) and qsort(3), thanks to Falk Hüffner
     (closes: Bug#348072)
   * Document overriding of certain passwd fields in nsswitch.conf(5),
     thanks to Vincent McIntyre (closes: Bug#333871)
   * Don't claim running a nameserver on localhost is normal in
     resolv.conf(5) (closes: Bug#149554)
   * Adjusted the reporting address in ioctl_list(2) (closes: Bug#236671)
   * Added a note on inet6 in resolv.conf(5) (closes: Bug#405694)
   * Fixed typo in vfork(2) (closes: Bug#435018)
Files: 
 536f3494b54940ddb2d47abc1cc89215 584 doc important manpages_2.76-1.dsc
 7e330eca6fb97c261b30b36684e54101 1277680 doc important manpages_2.76.orig.tar.gz
 ec52822323d50e91572168079a30d684 48149 doc important manpages_2.76-1.diff.gz
 3abfb14f19dd2e0f0774f0c72df2d701 549796 doc important manpages_2.76-1_all.deb
 6f4eacab0716b1b0a82200fb7d158f83 1362732 doc optional manpages-dev_2.76-1_all.deb

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Message #20 received at 459232@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Andries E. Brouwer" <Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl>

To: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@googlemail.com>

Cc: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg-debian.org@fifthhorseman.net>, 459232@bugs.debian.org, Andries Brouwer <Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl>

Subject: Re: Bug#459232: manpages: random(4) has inconsistent information about /proc

Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:04:32 +0100

On Sat, Jan 05, 2008 at 08:27:27AM +0100, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
> Danial (and Andries),
> 
> Re http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=459232
> 
> It looks like things changed with the move from 2.4 to 2.6.

The change was made in 2.6.12.

Andries

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