RAND

Section: OpenSSL (1)
Updated: 2009-02-02
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NAME

rand - generate pseudo-random bytes  

SYNOPSIS

openssl rand [-out file] [-rand file(s)] [-base64] [-hex] num  

DESCRIPTION

The rand command outputs num pseudo-random bytes after seeding the random number generator once. As in other openssl command line tools, PRNG seeding uses the file $HOME/.rnd or .rnd in addition to the files given in the -rand option. A new $HOME/.rnd or .rnd file will be written back if enough seeding was obtained from these sources.  

OPTIONS

-out file
Write to file instead of standard output.
-rand file(s)
Use specified file or files or EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)) for seeding the random number generator. Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character. The separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others.
-base64
Perform base64 encoding on the output.
-hex
Show the output as a hex string.
 

SEE ALSO

RAND_bytes(3)