rand.pod revision 325337 
1=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5openssl-rand,
6rand - generate pseudo-random bytes
7
8=head1 SYNOPSIS
9
10B<openssl rand>
11[B<-out> I<file>]
12[B<-rand> I<file(s)>]
13[B<-base64>]
14[B<-hex>]
15I<num>
16
17=head1 DESCRIPTION
18
19The B<rand> command outputs I<num> pseudo-random bytes after seeding
20the random number generator once.  As in other B<openssl> command
21line tools, PRNG seeding uses the file I<$HOME/>B<.rnd> or B<.rnd>
22in addition to the files given in the B<-rand> option.  A new
23I<$HOME>/B<.rnd> or B<.rnd> file will be written back if enough
24seeding was obtained from these sources.
25
26=head1 OPTIONS
27
28=over 4
29
30=item B<-out> I<file>
31
32Write to I<file> instead of standard output.
33
34=item B<-rand> I<file(s)>
35
36Use specified file or files or EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)|RAND_egd(3)>)
37for seeding the random number generator.
38Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character.
39The separator is B<;> for MS-Windows, B<,> for OpenVMS, and B<:> for
40all others.
41
42=item B<-base64>
43
44Perform base64 encoding on the output.
45
46=item B<-hex>
47
48Show the output as a hex string.
49
50=back
51
52=head1 SEE ALSO
53
54L<RAND_bytes(3)|RAND_bytes(3)>
55
56=cut
57