Question about md_open() and random

[Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos]

On Fri 07 Jul 2006 18:50, Moritz Schulte wrote:
> > I don't understand why a message digest function need to call
> > "_gcry_fast_random_poll()" !? I noticed a FIXME:
>
> This is to make sure that the random pool is filled with entropy on a
> pseudo-regular basis.  Note that this function call is a no-op, in
> case the random pool has not been used before.

Hmmm, this has the side effect of adding a non deterministic delay
to other unrelated to randomness functions (because of the lock). 
(and might even become a bottleneck when many hashes are done in 
parallel).

Maybe it might be more clear for this function (or a wrapper of it) to 
become part of the randomness api?


regards,
Nikos