docs/101564: man 4 random has a URL as reference

[Dr. Markus Waldeck]

>Number:         101564
>Category:       docs
>Synopsis:       man 4 random has a URL as reference
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-doc
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Aug 07 10:00:30 GMT 2006
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Dr. Markus Waldeck
>Release:        6.1
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
There a two problems.

1. It is inconvenient to find a URL in a man page which requires online access!

2. man 4 random claims that:

     The other variables are explained in the paper describing the Yarrow
     algorithm at http://www.counterpane.com/yarrow.html.

     These variables are all limited in terms of the values they may contain:
	   kern.random.yarrow.gengateinterval  [4..64]
	   kern.random.yarrow.bins	       [2..16]
	   kern.random.yarrow.fastthresh       [64..256]
	   kern.random.yarrow.slowthresh       [64..256]
	   kern.random.yarrow.slowoverthresh   [1..5]

Scheiers paper explains the algoritm but does not consider the meaning to the variables.


>How-To-Repeat:
man 4 random
>Fix:
Add a useful explanation!
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: