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1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
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8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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13.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\" without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\" $OpenBSD: random.3,v 1.6 1998/07/05 19:54:25 millert Exp $
33.\"
34.Dd April 19, 1991
35.Dt RANDOM 3
36.Os BSD 4.2
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm random ,
39.Nm srandom ,
40.Nm initstate ,
41.Nm setstate
42.Nd better random number generator; routines for changing generators
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
45.Ft long
46.Fn random void
47.Ft void
48.Fn srandom "unsigned int seed"
49.Ft char *
50.Fn initstate "unsigned int seed" "char *state" "size_t n"
51.Ft char *
52.Fn setstate "const char *state"
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The
55.Fn random
56function
57uses a non-linear additive feedback random number generator employing a
58default table of size 31 long integers to return successive pseudo-random
59numbers in the range from 0 to
60.if t 2\u\s731\s10\d\(mi1.
61.if n (2**31)\(mi1.
62The maximum value returned by
63.Fn random
64is
65.Dv LONG_MAX
66(as defined by the header file
67.Aq Pa limits.h ) .
68The period of this random number generator is very large, approximately
69.if t 16\(mu(2\u\s731\s10\d\(mi1).
70.if n 16*((2**31)\(mi1).
71.Pp
72The
73.Fn random Ns / Fn srandom
74have (almost) the same calling sequence and initialization properties as
75.Xr rand 3 Ns / Xr srand 3 .
76The difference is that
77.Xr rand
78produces a much less random sequence \(em in fact, the low dozen bits
79generated by rand go through a cyclic pattern. All the bits generated by
80.Fn random
81are usable. For example,
82.Sq Li random()&01
83will produce a random binary
84value.
85.Pp
86Unlike
87.Xr srand ,
88.Fn srandom
89does not return the old seed; the reason for this is that the amount of
90state information used is much more than a single word. (Two other
91routines are provided to deal with restarting/changing random
92number generators). Like
93.Xr rand 3 ,
94however,
95.Fn random
96will by default produce a sequence of numbers that can be duplicated
97by calling
98.Fn srandom
99with
100.Ql 1
101as the seed.
102.Pp
103The
104.Fn initstate
105routine allows a state array, passed in as an argument, to be initialized
106for future use. The size of the state array (in bytes) is used by
107.Fn initstate
108to decide how sophisticated a random number generator it should use \(em the
109more state, the better the random numbers will be.
110(Current "optimal" values for the amount of state information are
1118, 32, 64, 128, and 256 bytes; other amounts will be rounded down to
112the nearest known amount. Using less than 8 bytes will cause an error.)
113The seed for the initialization (which specifies a starting point for
114the random number sequence, and provides for restarting at the same
115point) is also an argument.
116The
117.Fn initstate
118function
119returns a pointer to the previous state information array.
120.Pp
121Once a state has been initialized, the
122.Fn setstate
123routine provides for rapid switching between states.
124The
125.Fn setstate
126function
127returns a pointer to the previous state array; its
128argument state array is used for further random number generation
129until the next call to
130.Fn initstate
131or
132.Fn setstate .
133.Pp
134Once a state array has been initialized, it may be restarted at a
135different point either by calling
136.Fn initstate
137(with the desired seed, the state array, and its size) or by calling
138both
139.Fn setstate
140(with the state array) and
141.Fn srandom
142(with the desired seed).
143The advantage of calling both
144.Fn setstate
145and
146.Fn srandom
147is that the size of the state array does not have to be remembered after
148it is initialized.
149.Pp
150With 256 bytes of state information, the period of the random number
151generator is greater than
152.if t 2\u\s769\s10\d,
153.if n 2**69
154which should be sufficient for most purposes.
155.Sh AUTHOR
156Earl T. Cohen
157.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
158If
159.Fn initstate
160is called with less than 8 bytes of state information, or if
161.Fn setstate
162detects that the state information has been garbled, error
163messages are printed on the standard error output.
164.Sh SEE ALSO
165.Xr arc4random 3 ,
166.Xr drand48 3 ,
167.Xr rand 3
168.Sh STANDARDS
169The
170.Fn random ,
171.Fn srandom ,
172.Fn initstate ,
173and
174.Fn setstate
175functions conform to
176.St -xpg4.2 .
177.Sh HISTORY
178These
179functions appeared in
180.Bx 4.2 .
181.Sh BUGS
182About 2/3 the speed of
183.Xr rand 3 .