>> Is /dev/random out of entropy?
>
> that's a new question to me. i'll google, of course, but how would i check?
after a bit of investigation, i find on OSX (from: 'man 4 random'),
/dev/urandom is a compatibility nod to Linux. On Linux, /dev/urandom will
produce lower quality output if the entropy pool drains, while
/dev/random will prefer to block and wait for additional entropy to be
collected. With Yarrow, this choice and distinction is not necessary,
and the two devices behave identically. You may use either.
my understanding is that /dev/random &/or /dev/urandom -- on
OSX/darwin -- never block, i.e. "out of entropy" is not an issue on
osx. or so i've now been repeatedly told by the #macdev folks ...