Re: Guile 2.0.0 cannot open /dev/urandom

[Mark Harig]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 10:58:33PM +0000, Martin Ward wrote:
> Guile 1.8.6 can open /dev/urandom (which I use for seeding a random
> number generator):
>
> % guile
> guile> (open-input-file "/dev/urandom")
> #<input: /dev/urandom 9>
> guile>
>
> But guile 2.0.0 gives this error:
>
> ~/Documents/guile-2.0.0/meta/guile
> GNU Guile 2.0.0
> Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>
> Guile comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `,show w'.
> This program is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
> under certain conditions; type `,show c' for details.
>
> Enter `,help' for help.
> scheme@(guile-user)> (open-input-file "/dev/urandom")
> ERROR: In procedure open-file:
> ERROR: In procedure fport_end_input: Invalid argument
>
> Entering a new prompt.  Type `,bt' for a backtrace or `,q' to 
continue.
> scheme@(guile-user) [1]>  ,bt
>            0 (open-file "/dev/urandom" "r")
> scheme@(guile-user) [1]>
>
>
> --

As a work-around until the Guile developers can decide how
this is going to be handled, specifying that the file is to be opened
in read-only, binary mode works on bothGuile 2.0 and Guile 1.8.
This requires that you use `open-file' instead of `open-input-file':

$ guile
GNU Guile 2.0.0
Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Guile comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `,show w'.
This program is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `,show c' for details.

Enter `,help' for help.
scheme@(guile-user)> (open-file "/dev/urandom" "rb")
$1 = #<input: /dev/urandom 108>
scheme@(guile-user)> ,q

$ /usr/bin/guile
guile> (version)
"1.8.7"
guile> (open-file "/dev/urandom" "rb")
#<input: /dev/urandom 9>
guile>

The file, /dev/urandom, will then be opened in read-only
mode for both versions of Guile.

--