[Info-vax] VSI strategy for OpenVMS

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-09-13, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> On 9/13/2021 2:03 PM, chris wrote:
>> 
>> I tend to agree with that, but a standard C library abstraction layer
>> and header files would allow a lot of unix related (note: not 
>> necessarily linux) open source to build far more easily.
>
> That stuff is useful.
>
> Emulating reading from /dev/urandom may not be as useful.
>

Only because VMS doesn't have random number device drivers with a
central entropy pool and with access to kernel-level information
that allows it to generate better quality entropy.

In normal circumstances, if VMS itself supported random number
generation to the same standards as on other operating systems,
/dev/urandom would be a _very_ useful thing to emulate.

Emulating a blocking /dev/random would also be a very good thing
to emulate if VMS had a suitable device driver for that as well.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.