Creating the same random numbers

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 07:59:34PM +0000, creslin at gmail.com wrote:

But in short answer yes, if you use the same seed the same answer
would be generated, assuming no further entropy is used later I.e
dependent on method employed to expand. Though then the 'randomness'
is in the seed not the output. Its this capability which allows simple
access control token devices to operate.

I'm not quite familiar with the number generators in the kernel. Right
now I do this to get a random number betwen min and max:

/* compute the random value within the given min and max wrt to step */
int tmp_bytes, range;

range = max - min + 1;
get_random_bytes(&tmp_bytes, sizeof(tmp_bytes));
if (0 > tmp_bytes)
	tmp_bytes = -tmp_bytes;
new_random_param->curval = tmp_bytes % range + min;

You mentioned the seed value. Is there a way to set a seed value before
I invoke get_random_bytes? Could you direct me to a page / source file
where I can get more information about it?

Thanks for all responses so long!
Andreas Leppert