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rand

NAME

openssl-rand, 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)