man-pages/man3/getentropy.3.html
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<H1>GETENTROPY</H1>
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)<BR>Updated: 2017-09-15<BR><A HREF="#index">Index</A>
<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">Return to Main Contents</A><HR>
<A NAME="lbAB">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>NAME</H2>
getentropy - fill a buffer with random bytes
<A NAME="lbAC">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2>
<B>#include &lt;<A HREF="file:///usr/include/unistd.h">unistd.h</A>&gt;</B>
<P>
<B>int getentropy(void *</B><I>buffer</I><B>, size_t </B><I>length</I><B>);</B>
<P>
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?7+feature_test_macros">feature_test_macros</A></B>(7)):
<P>
<B>getentropy</B>():
<BR>
<DL COMPACT><DT id="1"><DD>
_DEFAULT_SOURCE
</DL>
<A NAME="lbAD">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
The
<B>getentropy</B>()
function writes
<I>length</I>
bytes of high-quality random data to the buffer starting
at the location pointed to by
<I>buffer</I>.
The maximum permitted value for the
<I>length</I>
argument is 256.
<P>
A successful call to
<B>getentropy</B>()
always provides the requested number of bytes of entropy.
<A NAME="lbAE">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>RETURN VALUE</H2>
On success, this function returns zero.
On error, -1 is returned, and
<I>errno</I>
is set appropriately.
<A NAME="lbAF">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>ERRORS</H2>
<DL COMPACT>
<DT id="2"><B>EFAULT</B>
<DD>
Part or all of the buffer specified by
<I>buffer</I>
and
<I>length</I>
is not in valid addressable memory.
<DT id="3"><B>EIO</B>
<DD>
<I>length</I>
is greater than 256.
<DT id="4"><B>EIO</B>
<DD>
An unspecified error occurred while trying to overwrite
<I>buffer</I>
with random data.
<DT id="5"><B>ENOSYS</B>
<DD>
This kernel version does not implement the
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+getrandom">getrandom</A></B>(2)
system call required to implement this function.
</DL>
<A NAME="lbAG">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>VERSIONS</H2>
The
<B>getentropy</B>()
function first appeared in glibc 2.25.
<A NAME="lbAH">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>CONFORMING TO</H2>
This function is nonstandard.
It is also present on OpenBSD.
<A NAME="lbAI">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>NOTES</H2>
The
<B>getentropy</B>()
function is implemented using
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+getrandom">getrandom</A></B>(2).
<P>
Whereas the glibc wrapper makes
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+getrandom">getrandom</A></B>(2)
a cancellation point,
<B>getentropy</B>()
is not a cancellation point.
<P>
<B>getentropy</B>()
is also declared in
<B>&lt;<A HREF="file:///usr/include/sys/random.h">sys/random.h</A>&gt;</B>.
(No feature test macro need be defined to obtain the declaration from
that header file.)
<P>
A call to
<B>getentropy</B>()
may block if the system has just booted and the kernel has
not yet collected enough randomness to initialize the entropy pool.
In this case,
<B>getentropy</B>()
will keep blocking even if a signal is handled,
and will return only once the entropy pool has been initialized.
<A NAME="lbAJ">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+getrandom">getrandom</A></B>(2),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?4+urandom">urandom</A></B>(4),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?7+random">random</A></B>(7)
<A NAME="lbAK">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>COLOPHON</H2>
This page is part of release 5.05 of the Linux
<I>man-pages</I>
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
<A HREF="https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.">https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.</A>
<P>
<HR>
<A NAME="index">&nbsp;</A><H2>Index</H2>
<DL>
<DT id="6"><A HREF="#lbAB">NAME</A><DD>
<DT id="7"><A HREF="#lbAC">SYNOPSIS</A><DD>
<DT id="8"><A HREF="#lbAD">DESCRIPTION</A><DD>
<DT id="9"><A HREF="#lbAE">RETURN VALUE</A><DD>
<DT id="10"><A HREF="#lbAF">ERRORS</A><DD>
<DT id="11"><A HREF="#lbAG">VERSIONS</A><DD>
<DT id="12"><A HREF="#lbAH">CONFORMING TO</A><DD>
<DT id="13"><A HREF="#lbAI">NOTES</A><DD>
<DT id="14"><A HREF="#lbAJ">SEE ALSO</A><DD>
<DT id="15"><A HREF="#lbAK">COLOPHON</A><DD>
</DL>
<HR>
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