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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!swidir.switch.ch!in2p3.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu!library.ucla.edu!agate!tfs.com!mailhub.tfs.com!julian From: julian@mailhub.tfs.com (Julian Elischer) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Random in Perl Date: 3 Dec 1995 23:54:41 GMT Organization: TRW Financial Systems, Oakland, CA Lines: 18 Message-ID: <49tdc1$9ct@times.tfs.com> References: <andrew-0412950201540001@dslip3.cc.utas.edu.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: mailhub.tfs.com In article <andrew-0412950201540001@dslip3.cc.utas.edu.au>, Andrew <andrew@hobart.tased.edu.au> wrote: :I have a CGI script written in perl. It needs one random number each :execution but every time it calls rand it gets the same number. This isn't :quite true it changes every 6 or 7 calls before going back to the original :value. Yes - I had first called srand; in -current there is a /dev/random --produces REALLY random stream of bits : :Someone in comp.lang.perl suggested srand(time^$$); :This is better as now the number changes every 3 or 4 calls. This is still :not quite random enough for me however :( add your last random number as well? : :If I write a script to output _multiple_ random numbers (it graphs them to ::) they appear to be random. :