openssl/doc/man3/RAND_load_file.pod
Rich Salz 9ee344f5cd Cleanup RAND_load_file,RAND_write_file
Document an internal assumption that these are only for use with files,
and return an error if not. That made the code much simpler.
Leave it as writing 1024 bytes, even though we don't need more than 256
from a security perspective.  But the amount isn't specified, now, so we
can change it later if we want.

Reviewed-by: Richard Levitte <levitte@openssl.org>
(Merged from https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/3864)
2017-07-06 13:59:11 -04:00

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=pod
=head1 NAME
RAND_load_file, RAND_write_file, RAND_file_name - PRNG seed file
=head1 SYNOPSIS
#include <openssl/rand.h>
int RAND_load_file(const char *filename, long max_bytes);
int RAND_write_file(const char *filename);
const char *RAND_file_name(char *buf, size_t num);
=head1 DESCRIPTION
RAND_load_file() reads a number of bytes from file B<filename> and
adds them to the PRNG. If B<max_bytes> is non-negative,
up to B<max_bytes> are read;
if B<max_bytes> is -1, the complete file is read.
RAND_write_file() writes a number of random bytes (currently 256) to
file B<filename> which can be used to initialize the PRNG by calling
RAND_load_file() in a later session.
RAND_file_name() generates a default path for the random seed
file. B<buf> points to a buffer of size B<num> in which to store the
filename.
On all systems, if the environment variable B<RANDFILE> is set, its
value will be used as the seed file name.
Otherwise, the file is called C<.rnd>, found in platform dependent locations:
=over 4
=item On Windows (in order of preference)
%HOME%, %USERPROFILE%, %SYSTEMROOT%, C:\
=item On VMS
SYS$LOGIN:
=item On all other systems
$HOME
=back
If C<$HOME> (on non-Windows and non-VMS system) is not set either, or
B<num> is too small for the path name, an error occurs.
=head1 RETURN VALUES
RAND_load_file() returns the number of bytes read.
RAND_write_file() returns the number of bytes written, and -1 if the
bytes written were generated without appropriate seed.
RAND_file_name() returns a pointer to B<buf> on success, and NULL on
error.
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<RAND_bytes(3)>, L<RAND_add(3)>, L<RAND_cleanup(3)>
=head1 HISTORY
A comment in the source since at least OpenSSL version 1.0.2 said that
RAND_load_file() and RAND_write_file() were only intended for regular files,
and not really device special files such as C</dev/random>. This was
poorly enforced before OpenSSL version 1.1.1.
=head1 COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2000-2016 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
=cut