RAND

Section: OpenSSL (1)
Updated: 2019-02-26
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NAME

openssl-rand, rand - generate pseudo-random bytes

SYNOPSIS

openssl rand [-help] [-out file] [-rand file...] [-writerand file] [-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

-help: Print out a usage message.
-out file: Write to file instead of standard output.
-rand file...: A file or files containing random data used to seed the random number generator. Multiple files can be specified separated by an OS-dependent character. The separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others.
[-writerand file]: Writes random data to the specified file upon exit. This can be used with a subsequent -rand flag.
-base64: Perform base64 encoding on the output.
-hex: Show the output as a hex string.

COPYRIGHT

Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the ``License''). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.