On Wed, 30 Apr 1997, Rick Byers wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm working on an application that needs as-random-as-possible values. 
> I've been using the tv_usec from gettimeofday as the seed.  My question
> is, what is the resolution of tv_usec?  Is it possible to say that it will
> only ever be a certain subset of possible values?  I assume it's very
> difficult to predict the exact value at any given time (because subsequent
> calls return significantly different values).
> 
> Is there any better way to make a random number?  I don't like the idea of
> having a 32 bit seed because that limits the possible outcomes to 2^32.
> Has their been any thought into putting a random number generator in the
> kernel, and are there any patches to do this?  I would think this would be
> nearly perfect since it would be impossible to find the pattern unless you
> had root/physical access.
Use random - it has a larger facility than 2^32 (from man 3 random)
===
     The random() function uses a non-linear additive feedback random number
     generator employing a default table of size 31 long integers to return
     successive pseudo-random numbers in the range from 0 to (2**31)-1.
     The period of this random number generator is very large, approximately
     16*((2**31)-1).
===
This should be large enough for _any_ application.
johnh...
> 
> Thanks,
> 	Rick
> 
> =========================================================================
> Rick Byers                                      Internet Access Worldwide
> rickb@iaw.on.ca                                      System Administrator
> Welland, Ontario, Canada                                    (905)714-1400
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> 
>