RAND(1)                             OpenSL                            RAND(1)



NAME
       rand - generate pseudo-random bytes

SYNOPSIS
       openssl rand [-out file] [-rand file(s)] [-base64] num

DESCRIPTION
       The rand command outputs num pseudo-random bytes after seeding the ran-
       dom 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 writ-
       ten 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 RANDegd(3)) for
           seeding the random number generator.  Multiple files can be speci-
           fied 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.

SEE ALSO
       RANDbytes(3)



0.9.7l                            2001-09-06                           RAND(1)