Bug 101564 - man 4 random has a URL as reference
Summary: man 4 random has a URL as reference
Status: Closed FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Documentation
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Books & Articles (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any Any
: Normal Affects Only Me
Assignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-08-07 11:00 UTC by Dr. Markus Waldeck
Modified: 2006-10-14 10:30 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description Dr. Markus Waldeck 2006-08-07 11:00:30 UTC
There a two problems.

1. It is inconvenient to find a URL in a man page which requires online access!

2. man 4 random claims that:

     The other variables are explained in the paper describing the Yarrow
     algorithm at http://www.counterpane.com/yarrow.html.

     These variables are all limited in terms of the values they may contain:
	   kern.random.yarrow.gengateinterval  [4..64]
	   kern.random.yarrow.bins	       [2..16]
	   kern.random.yarrow.fastthresh       [64..256]
	   kern.random.yarrow.slowthresh       [64..256]
	   kern.random.yarrow.slowoverthresh   [1..5]

Scheiers paper explains the algoritm but does not consider the meaning to the variables.

Fix: 

Add a useful explanation!
How-To-Repeat: man 4 random
Comment 1 Remko Lodder freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2006-10-13 15:16:30 UTC
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

The URL is required to understand the Yarrow protocol, we cannot remove 
that eventhough it requires internet access for this. Closing the PR. 
Facilitated by: Snow B.V.
Comment 2 waldeck 2006-10-14 10:21:11 UTC
Hi,

> Synopsis: man 4 random has a URL as reference

> State-Changed-From-To: open->closed
> State-Changed-By: remko
> State-Changed-When: Fri Oct 13 14:16:30 UTC 2006
> State-Changed-Why: 
> The URL is required to understand the Yarrow protocol, we cannot remove
> that eventhough it requires internet access for this. Closing the PR.
> Facilitated by: Snow B.V.

> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=101564

Did you read the last sentence in my PR?

>> Scheiers paper explains the algoritm but does not consider the meaning to the variables.

This is still true!

Dr. Markus Waldeck