Philip Martin <philip@codematters.co.uk> writes:
> Different hardware 'generates' entropy at different rates, it's
> possible that a machine that generates entropy slowly might have a
> problem merely creating repository UUIDs, particularly if it otherwise
> runs the tests quickly. Another possibility is that Karl's machine
> may be running some other process, unconnected with the testsuite,
> that drains the entropy pool.
I don't know if I have other entropy-draining processes going
simultaneously with the Subversion test suite (which I always run in a
ramdisk, by the way).
But I do have evidence (from generating long random strings for use in
one-time pads for my other career as a spy) that my entropy pool can
get drained and then slow down drastically. The file I'm pouring bits
into will suddenly stop growing at whatever rate it had been growing
at, and thereafter grow at a noticeably slower rate. I've never done
careful timings, it's just been clear that there's a sharp dropoff.
So Philip's explanation does pass the sniff test.
-Karl
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Received on Sat Nov 3 19:22:05 2007