[ARROW-10287] [C++] Avoid std::random_device whenever possible

• Type: Wish
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 2.0.0
• Component/s: C++
• Labels: pull-request-available
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/26280
• Assignee: Antoine Pitrou
• Reporter: Antoine Pitrou
• Created: 12/Oct/20 14:16
• Updated: 11/Jan/23 08:12
• Resolved: 12/Oct/20 17:35

Description

I just tried running the tests on a default build on Ubuntu 20.04 with an AMD Ryzen CPU (where presumably RDRAND can't be relied on, but I don't know if that's the underlying reason), and the tests appear to hand blocking on std::random_device at some point. I suppose some versions of libstdc++ will use /dev/random instead of /dev/urandom (which is a bad idea in itself).

We should probably try to minimize our usage of std::random_device. After all, we're not generating cryptographic keys or anything.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #8444