Re: [boost] [Review] UUID library (mini-)review starts today, November 23rd

Subject: Re: [boost] [Review] UUID library (mini-)review starts today, November 23rd
From: Andy Tompkins (atompkins_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-11-29 00:16:10

On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:40:44 +0100, "Manuel Fiorelli"
<manuel.fiorelli_at_[hidden]> said:
> Francois Barel wrote:
> > I recently saw the case where a developer thought he was getting
> > something unique by retrieving the first MAC address of the
> > machine... only to discover that on machines with VMWare installed,
> > the first two returned MAC addresses are actually the MAC addresses
> > of VMWare's virtual network adapters, which are (by default) the
> > same everywhere. IOW, his code was returning the same MAC address on
> > every PC with VMWare installed.
> >
> > François
>
> I wasn't aware of that issue. Things are yet complicated, but your
> point complicates them much more.

Wow complicated indeed.  I agree that one could make a generic uuid
generator that is given that MAC address.  And then create some platform
specific generators that work on top of the generic one.  But the
generic uuid generator will still have to be in the public interface for
those complicated cases.

> Manuel Fiorelli
>

Thanks,
Andy Tompkins