Calling initialize is enough to bring the RNG into a working state. In addition, a background task is set up to periodically reseed the RNG.
initialize is idempotent as long as the default generator is unchanged. It is harmless to call it several times.
Note that initialize returns a thread. While the reseeding task has only been created once this thread completes, the initial seeding is done before the function returns. Is is safe to use the RNG immediately after the invocation.
Usage
Seed during module initialization, not waiting for the background seeding to start:
let _ = Nocrypto_entropy_lwt.initialize ()
Seed just before the main function, not waiting for the background seeding to start:
let () =
ignore (Nocrypto_entropy_lwt.initialize ());
Lwt_main.run (main ())
Seed just before the main function, and wait for the background seeding to start before proceeding:
let () =
Lwt_main.run (Nocrypto_entropy_lwt.initialize () >>= main)
attach ~period ~device g instruments the lwt event loop to mix in bytes from device into g whenever external events cause the loop to wake up, but no more often than once every period seconds.