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authorTom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>2016-08-03 17:57:47 +1200
committerTom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>2016-08-03 18:03:38 +1200
commit8783a7ba4fccb5f8bb178241a98392cb4b6f6f6c (patch)
tree9323cf3529ba1c809beed46256889b8ee88c6d0d /man
parentAllow numerator and denominator in myb(1) (diff)
downloaddotfiles-8783a7ba4fccb5f8bb178241a98392cb4b6f6f6c.tar.gz
dotfiles-8783a7ba4fccb5f8bb178241a98392cb4b6f6f6c.zip
Add rnds(1)
Low-quality random seed attempt.
Diffstat (limited to 'man')
-rw-r--r--man/man1/rnda.17
-rw-r--r--man/man1/rndf.17
-rw-r--r--man/man1/rndi.119
-rw-r--r--man/man1/rndl.16
-rw-r--r--man/man1/rnds.121
5 files changed, 45 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/man/man1/rnda.1 b/man/man1/rnda.1
index 09833927..3c573662 100644
--- a/man/man1/rnda.1
+++ b/man/man1/rnda.1
@@ -8,9 +8,10 @@
arg1 arg2 arg3
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B rnda
-prints a random choice from the given arguments. It uses rndi(1), which is not
-a high-quality random number source.
+prints a random choice from the given arguments. It uses rndi(1), which is
+probably not a high-quality source, but should differ within seconds and
+between runs on most systems.
.SH SEE ALSO
-rndf(1), rndi(1), rndl(1), rndn(6)
+rndf(1), rndi(1), rndl(1), rnds(1), rndn(6)
.SH AUTHOR
Tom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>
diff --git a/man/man1/rndf.1 b/man/man1/rndf.1
index a01a1125..f523c3ac 100644
--- a/man/man1/rndf.1
+++ b/man/man1/rndf.1
@@ -11,9 +11,10 @@
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B rndf
prints the name a random file (excluding dot files) from the given directory,
-defaulting to the current directory. It uses rndi(1), which is not a
-high-quality random number source.
+defaulting to the current directory. It uses rndi(1), which is probably not a
+high-quality source, but should differ within seconds and between runs on most
+systems.
.SH SEE ALSO
-rndi(1), rnda(1), rndl(1), rndn(6)
+rndi(1), rnda(1), rndl(1), rnds(1), rndn(6)
.SH AUTHOR
Tom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>
diff --git a/man/man1/rndi.1 b/man/man1/rndi.1
index b645d504..094a5f62 100644
--- a/man/man1/rndi.1
+++ b/man/man1/rndi.1
@@ -1,20 +1,25 @@
.TH RNDI 1 "August 2016" "Manual page for rndi"
.SH NAME
.B rndi
-\- return a low-quality random integer between two bounds
+\- return a low-quality random integer
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rndi
0 10
+.br
+.B rndi
+0 10 "$(rnds)"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B rndi
returns a random integer ranging from the first argument to the second argument
-in a POSIX-compliant way (using awk).
+in a POSIX-compliant way (using awk), using the optional third argument as a
+seed.
.P
-The answer returned is low-quality; given some implementations of awk, it may
-even return the same result if run within the same second. This should not be
-used in any sort of security or statistical context. The author wrote it to
-support scripts to choose a random background image from a directory.
+The answer returned is low-quality; given some implementations of awk and no
+properly random seed, it may even return the same result if run within the same
+second. This should not be used in any sort of security or statistical context.
+The author wrote it to support scripts to choose a random background image from
+a directory.
.SH SEE ALSO
-rnda(1), rndf(1), rndl(1), rndn(6)
+rnda(1), rndf(1), rndl(1), rnds(1), rndn(6)
.SH AUTHOR
Tom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>
diff --git a/man/man1/rndl.1 b/man/man1/rndl.1
index e9f697b3..69deb42b 100644
--- a/man/man1/rndl.1
+++ b/man/man1/rndl.1
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ command |
.B rndl
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B rndl
-prints a random line from its input, using rndi(1) to choose it.
+prints a random line from its input, using rndi(1) to choose it. It uses
+rndi(1), which is probably not a high-quality source, but should differ within
+seconds and between runs on most systems.
.SH SEE ALSO
-rndi(1), rnda(1), rndf(1), rndn(6)
+rndi(1), rnda(1), rndf(1), rnds(1), rndn(6)
.SH AUTHOR
Tom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>
diff --git a/man/man1/rnds.1 b/man/man1/rnds.1
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1e76d9a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/man1/rnds.1
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+.TH RNDS 1 "August 2016" "Manual page for rnds"
+.SH NAME
+.B rnds
+\- try to get a random seed
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B rnds
+.B rnds
+1024
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.B rnds
+uses POSIX tools to try and find a random number device on the system and emits
+the first field of a cksum(1) based on it as a low-quality random numeric seed.
+The only optional argument allows specifying the number of random bytes to
+read, defaulting to 32. This is intended as a low-quality seed for rndi(1).
+.P
+/dev/arandom is tried first, then /dev/urandom, then /dev/random, before the
+script gives up and emits nothing.
+.SH SEE ALSO
+rndi(1), rnda(1), rndf(1), rndl(1), rndn(6)
+.SH AUTHOR
+Tom Ryder <tom@sanctum.geek.nz>