RAND
Section: OpenSSL (1)
Updated: 2019-02-26
Page Index
 
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)