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IPSEC_RANBITSSection: Maintenance Commands (8)Updated: 27 Oct 1998 Index Return to Main Contents NAMEipsec ranbits - generate random bits in ASCII formSYNOPSISipsec ranbits [ --quick ] [ --continuous ] [ --bytes ] nbitsDESCRIPTIONRanbits obtains nbits (rounded up to the nearest byte) high-quality random bits from random(4), and emits them on standard output as an ASCII string. The default output format is datatoa(3) h format: lowercase hexadecimal with a 0x prefix and an underscore every 32 bits.The --quick option produces quick-and-dirty random bits: instead of using the high-quality random bits from /dev/random, which may take some time to supply the necessary bits if nbits is large, ranbits uses /dev/urandom, which yields prompt results but lower-quality randomness. The --continuous option uses datatoa(3) x output format, like h but without the underscores. The --bytes option causes nbits to be interpreted as a byte count rather than a bit count. FILES/dev/random, /dev/urandomSEE ALSOipsec_datatoa(3), random(4)HISTORYWritten for the Linux FreeS/WAN project <http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeswan/> by Henry Spencer.BUGSThere is an internal limit on nbits, currently 4096.Without --quick, ranbits's run time is difficult to predict. A request for a large number of bits, at a time when the system's entropy pool is low on randomness, may take quite a while to satisfy.
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