# man > random(4) [_random_(4)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/random/4/markdown) Kernel Interfaces Manual [_random_(4)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/random/4/markdown) ## NAME random, urandom - kernel random number source devices ## SYNOPSIS #include **int ioctl(_**fd_**, RND_**request_**, _**param_**);** ## DESCRIPTION The character special files _/dev/random_ and _/dev/urandom_ (present since Linux 1.3.30) provide an interface to the kernel's random number generator. The file _/dev/random_ has major device number 1 and minor device number 8. The file _/dev/urandom_ has major device number 1 and mi‐ nor device number 9. The random number generator gathers environmental noise from device drivers and other sources into an entropy pool. The generator also keeps an estimate of the number of bits of noise in the entropy pool. From this entropy pool, random numbers are created. Linux 3.17 and later provides the simpler and safer [**getrandom**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getrandom/2/markdown) interface which requires no special files; see the [**getrandom**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getrandom/2/markdown) manual page for details. When read, the _/dev/urandom_ device returns random bytes using a pseudorandom number generator seeded from the entropy pool. Reads from this device do not block (i.e., the CPU is not yielded), but can incur an appreciable delay when requesting large amounts of data. When read during early boot time, _/dev/urandom_ may return data prior to the entropy pool be‐ ing initialized. If this is of concern in your application, use [**getrandom**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getrandom/2/markdown) or _/dev/random_ instead. The _/dev/random_ device is a legacy interface which dates back to a time where the crypto‐ graphic primitives used in the implementation of _/dev/urandom_ were not widely trusted. It will return random bytes only within the estimated number of bits of fresh noise in the en‐ tropy pool, blocking if necessary. _/dev/random_ is suitable for applications that need high quality randomness, and can afford indeterminate delays. When the entropy pool is empty, reads from _/dev/random_ will block until additional environ‐ mental noise is gathered. Since Linux 5.6, the **O_NONBLOCK **flag is ignored as _/dev/random_ will no longer block except during early boot process. In earlier versions, if [**open**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/open/2/markdown) is called for _/dev/random_ with the **O_NONBLOCK **flag, a subsequent [**read**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/read/2/markdown) will not block if the requested number of bytes is not available. Instead, the available bytes are returned. If no byte is available, [**read**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/read/2/markdown) will return -1 and _errno_ will be set to **EAGAIN**. The **O_NONBLOCK **flag has no effect when opening _/dev/urandom_. When calling [**read**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/read/2/markdown) for the device _/dev/urandom_, reads of up to 256 bytes will return as many bytes as are requested and will not be interrupted by a signal handler. Reads with a buffer over this limit may return less than the requested number of bytes or fail with the error **EINTR**, if interrupted by a signal handler. Since Linux 3.16, a [**read**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/read/2/markdown) from _/dev/urandom_ will return at most 32 MB. A [**read**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/read/2/markdown) from _/dev/random_ will return at most 512 bytes (340 bytes before Linux 2.6.12). Writing to _/dev/random_ or _/dev/urandom_ will update the entropy pool with the data written, but this will not result in a higher entropy count. This means that it will impact the con‐ tents read from both files, but it will not make reads from _/dev/random_ faster. ### Usage The _/dev/random_ interface is considered a legacy interface, and _/dev/urandom_ is preferred and sufficient in all use cases, with the exception of applications which require randomness dur‐ ing early boot time; for these applications, [**getrandom**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getrandom/2/markdown) must be used instead, because it will block until the entropy pool is initialized. If a seed file is saved across reboots as recommended below, the output is cryptographically secure against attackers without local root access as soon as it is reloaded in the boot se‐ quence, and perfectly adequate for network encryption session keys. (All major Linux distri‐ butions have saved the seed file across reboots since 2000 at least.) Since reads from _/dev/random_ may block, users will usually want to open it in nonblocking mode (or perform a read with timeout), and provide some sort of user notification if the desired entropy is not immediately available. ### Configuration If your system does not have _/dev/random_ and _/dev/urandom_ created already, they can be cre‐ ated with the following commands: mknod -m 666 /dev/random c 1 8 mknod -m 666 /dev/urandom c 1 9 chown root:root /dev/random /dev/urandom When a Linux system starts up without much operator interaction, the entropy pool may be in a fairly predictable state. This reduces the actual amount of noise in the entropy pool below the estimate. In order to counteract this effect, it helps to carry entropy pool information across shut-downs and start-ups. To do this, add the lines to an appropriate script which is run during the Linux system start-up sequence: echo "Initializing random number generator..." random_seed=/var/run/random-seed # Carry a random seed from start-up to start-up # Load and then save the whole entropy pool if [ -f $random_seed ]; then cat $random_seed >/dev/urandom else touch $random_seed fi chmod 600 $random_seed poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize [ -r $poolfile ] && bits=$(cat $poolfile) || bits=4096 bytes=$(expr $bits / 8) dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes Also, add the following lines in an appropriate script which is run during the Linux system shutdown: # Carry a random seed from shut-down to start-up # Save the whole entropy pool echo "Saving random seed..." random_seed=/var/run/random-seed touch $random_seed chmod 600 $random_seed poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize [ -r $poolfile ] && bits=$(cat $poolfile) || bits=4096 bytes=$(expr $bits / 8) dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes In the above examples, we assume Linux 2.6.0 or later, where _/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize_ returns the size of the entropy pool in bits (see below). ### /proc interfaces The files in the directory _/proc/sys/kernel/random_ (present since Linux 2.3.16) provide addi‐ tional information about the _/dev/random_ device: _entropy_avail_ This read-only file gives the available entropy, in bits. This will be a number in the range 0 to 4096. _poolsize_ This file 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 available. The choices are 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048. Linux 2.6 and later: This file is read-only, and gives the size of the entropy pool in _bits_. It contains the value 4096. _read_wakeup_threshold_ This file contains the number of bits of entropy required for waking up processes that sleep waiting for entropy from _/dev/random_. The default is 64. _write_wakeup_threshold_ This file contains the number of bits of entropy below which we wake up processes that do a [**select**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/select/2/markdown) or [**poll**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/poll/2/markdown) for write access to _/dev/random_. These values can be changed by writing to the files. _uuid_ and _boot_id_ These read-only files contain random strings like 6fd5a44b-35f4-4ad4-a9b9-6b9be13e1fe9. The former is generated afresh for each read, the latter was generated once. ### [ioctl(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ioctl/2/markdown) interface The following [**ioctl**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ioctl/2/markdown) requests are defined on file descriptors connected to either _/dev/ran‐_ _dom_ or _/dev/urandom_. All requests performed will interact with the input entropy pool im‐ pacting both _/dev/random_ and _/dev/urandom_. The **CAP_SYS_ADMIN **capability is required for all requests except **RNDGETENTCNT**. **RNDGETENTCNT** Retrieve the entropy count of the input pool, the contents will be the same as the _en‐_ _tropy_avail_ file under proc. The result will be stored in the int pointed to by the argument. **RNDADDTOENTCNT** Increment or decrement the entropy count of the input pool by the value pointed to by the argument. **RNDGETPOOL** Removed in Linux 2.6.9. **RNDADDENTROPY** Add some additional entropy to the input pool, incrementing the entropy count. This differs from writing to _/dev/random_ or _/dev/urandom_, which only adds some data but does not increment the entropy count. The following structure is used: struct rand_pool_info { int entropy_count; int buf_size; __u32 buf[0]; }; Here _entropy_count_ is the value added to (or subtracted from) the entropy count, and _buf_ is the buffer of size _buf_size_ which gets added to the entropy pool. **RNDZAPENTCNT** **RNDCLEARPOOL** Zero the entropy count of all pools and add some system data (such as wall clock) to the pools. ## FILES _/dev/random_ _/dev/urandom_ ## NOTES For an overview and comparison of the various interfaces that can be used to obtain random‐ ness, see [**random**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/random/7/markdown). ## BUGS During early boot time, reads from _/dev/urandom_ may return data prior to the entropy pool be‐ ing initialized. ## SEE ALSO [**mknod**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mknod/1/markdown), [**getrandom**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getrandom/2/markdown), [**random**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/random/7/markdown) RFC 1750, "Randomness Recommendations for Security" Linux man-pages 6.7 2023-10-31 [_random_(4)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/random/4/markdown)