Message 267812 - Python tracker (original) (raw)

I don't know if anyone literally still uses BSD. But on FreeBSD, /dev/urandom can block.

So let me revise my statement slightly. Developers on platform X know how their /dev/urandom behaves. They should rightly expect that os.urandom() is a thin wrapper around their local /dev/urandom. If their /dev/urandom doesn't block, then os.urandom() shouldn't block. If their /dev/urandom blocks, then it's acceptable that their os.urandom() would block.

What I'm trying to avoid here is the surprising situation where someone is using Python on a system where /dev/urandom will never block, and os.urandom() blocks.