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.

SEE ALSO¶

RAND_bytes(3)