[Patches] Patch to make tempfile return random filenames

Tim Peters tim_one@email.msn.com
Mon, 22 May 2000 02:59:13 -0400


[Ragnar Kjørstad posts a patch, Tim objects, Ragnar responds]
> Theese are good arguments too keep the counter and improve the
> random-part (using a seed and maybe a bigger number), but they are not
> arguments that there should not be a random-part.

I just objected to the patch that was posted.  But short of hooking to a
source of true randomness, the problems with forking and predictability
won't go away (without a source of true randomness, whatever algorithm is
used to compute a seed will also be predictable).

I'm not sure I take "the problem" here all that seriously, but if I did I
don't think it could be solved at this level (e.g., in the Linux world "the
usual" suggestion for truly fixing this appears to be using per-user private
temp directories).