Imported from util-linux-2.5 tarball.

1 files changed, 33 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/misc-utils/mcookie.1 b/misc-utils/mcookie.1
index 395082548..6d3a11c30 100644
--- a/misc-utils/mcookie.1
+++ b/misc-utils/mcookie.1
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 .\" mcookie.1 -- 
 .\" Public Domain 1995 Rickard E. Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
-.TH MCOOKIE 1 "12 Feb 1995" "" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.TH MCOOKIE 1 "25 September 1995" "" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
 .SH NAME
 mcookie \- generate magic cookies for xauth
 .SH SYNOPSIS
-.B mcookie
+.BI "mcookie [\-v] [\-f " filename " ]"
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B mcookie
 generates a 128-bit random hexadecimal number for use with the X authority
@@ -12,6 +12,36 @@ system.  Typical usage:
 .RS
 xauth add :0 . `mcookie`
 .RE
+.PP
+The "random" number generated is actually the output of the MD5 message
+digest fed with various piece of random information: the current time, the
+process id, the parent process id, the contents of an input file (if
+.B \-f
+is specified), and several bytes of information from the first of the
+following devices which is present:
+.IR /dev/urandom ", " /dev/random ", " /dev/audio .
+Other files in
+.I /proc
+may be used as a last resort.
+.SH BUGS
+The entropy in the generated 128-bit is probably quite small (and,
+therefore, vulnerable to attack) unless a non-pseudorandom number generator
+is used (e.g.,
+.I /dev/random
+under Linux).
+.PP
+It is assumed that none of the devices opened will block.
+.SH FILES
+.I /dev/random
+.br
+.I /dev/urandom
+.br
+.I /dev/audio
+.br
+.I /proc/stat
+.br
+.I /proc/loadavg
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR X (1),
-.BR xauth (1)
+.BR xauth (1),
+.BR md5sum (1)