Source code
Revision control
Copy as Markdown
Other Tools
=head1 NAME
prng - pseudo-random number generator
=head1 SYNOPSIS
prng [count]
=head1 DESCRIPTION
B<Prng> generates 32-bit pseudo-random integers using the
Blum-Blum-Shub (BBS) quadratic residue generator. It is seeded using
the standard C library's rand() function, which itself seeded from the
system clock and the process ID number. Thus, the values generated
are not particularly useful for cryptographic applications, but they
are in general much better than the typical output of the usual
multiplicative congruency generator used by most runtime libraries.
You may optionally specify how many random values should be generated
by giving a I<count> argument on the command line. If you do not
specify a count, only one random value will be generated. The results
are output to the standard output in decimal notation, one value per
line.
=head1 RESTRICTIONS
As stated above, B<prng> uses the C library's rand() function to seed
the generator, so it is not terribly suitable for cryptographic
applications. Also note that each time you run the program, a new
seed is generated, so it is better to run it once with a I<count>
parameter than it is to run it multiple times to generate several
values.
=head1 AUTHOR
Michael J. Fromberger <sting@linguist.dartmouth.edu>
Copyright (C) 1998 Michael J. Fromberger, All Rights Reserved
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH USA