Subject: bug#24628: GNUtls initialization adds 500ms to startup --- do we really need it just for the RNG?

From: Ted Zlatanov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2016 12:01:11 -0400

On Fri, 07 Oct 2016 00:49:37 -0700 John Wiegley <[email-masked]> wrote: 

>>>>>> Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:
>> However, my objections were evidently not enough to revert back, although
>> you agreed with me:
>> http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=22202#118

JW> Thanks for the references. Let's revert this change for 25.2 until the stated
JW> problem (entropy exhaustion) becomes a real problem, i.e. reported by a user.

JW> There is no reason to make everyone pay a 1/2 second startup cost for a
JW> theoretical problem, or a code simplification whose benefits are so minor.

Could it be a compile-time or run-time option? If the problem becomes
practical, it will be good to have a workaround.

Ted