Re: how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-14 Thread Bret Hughes
On Sat, 2003-08-09 at 10:41, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > as part of a shell script, i'd like to generate a random > number (preferably an integer), but i'd like to do it in a > POSIX-compliant way. > > AFAICT, using the $RANDOM variable is not POSIX-compliant -- > that variable is not defined

how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-14 Thread Robert P. J. Day
as part of a shell script, i'd like to generate a random number (preferably an integer), but i'd like to do it in a POSIX-compliant way. AFAICT, using the $RANDOM variable is not POSIX-compliant -- that variable is not defined in a strict POSIX shell. any other suggestions? perhaps readin

Re: how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-14 Thread Bret Hughes
On Sat, 2003-08-09 at 14:38, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > On 9 Aug 2003, Bret Hughes wrote: > > > On Sat, 2003-08-09 at 10:41, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > > > > > as part of a shell script, i'd like to generate a random > > > number (preferably an integer), but i'd like to do it in a > > > POSIX-c

Re: how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-14 Thread Kent Borg
On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 05:07:08PM -0500, Bret Hughes wrote: > I was able to dd the /dev/urandom but was lost how to turn all those > funky chars into a number. You are on a binary computer, and /dev/urandom is spitting out binary data--what could be more fundamentally a number than that? If you

Re: how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-14 Thread Bret Hughes
On Sun, 2003-08-10 at 10:52, Kent Borg wrote: > On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 05:07:08PM -0500, Bret Hughes wrote: > > I was able to dd the /dev/urandom but was lost how to turn all those > > funky chars into a number. > > You are on a binary computer, and /dev/urandom is spitting out binary > data--wha

Re: how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-09 Thread Bret Hughes
On Sat, 2003-08-09 at 14:38, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > On 9 Aug 2003, Bret Hughes wrote: > > > On Sat, 2003-08-09 at 10:41, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > > > > > as part of a shell script, i'd like to generate a random > > > number (preferably an integer), but i'd like to do it in a > > > POSIX-c

Re: how to generate a random number using a POSIX shell??

2003-08-09 Thread Robert P. J. Day
On 9 Aug 2003, Bret Hughes wrote: > On Sat, 2003-08-09 at 10:41, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > > > as part of a shell script, i'd like to generate a random > > number (preferably an integer), but i'd like to do it in a > > POSIX-compliant way. > > > > AFAICT, using the $RANDOM variable is not