Get Random Bytes on *NIX

Getting Random Bytes on a *NIX System

There are several reasons you want to get a set of random bytes. I wrote a version for *NIX systems:

proc getRandomBytesNix {count {secure False}} {
    if $secure {
        set randFile /dev/random
    } else {
        set randFile /dev/urandom
    }
    set    randDev [open $randFile rb]
    set    random  [read $randDev  $count]
    close  $randDev
    return $random
}

In almost all cases you do not need /dev/random, so normally you would call it like:

set random [getRandomBytesNix 16]

As always: comments, tips and questions are appreciated.

Category Linux

Category Utilities