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