RAND

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

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.