BSD::arc4random3pm

Low-level functions

arc4random()

This function returns an unsigned 32-bit integer random value.

arc4random_addrandom(pbuf)

This function adds the entropy from pbuf into the libc pool and returns an unsigned 32-bit integer random value from it.

arc4random_pushb(pbuf)

This function first pushes the pbuf argument to the kernel if possible, then the entropy returned by the kernel into the libc pool, then returns an unsigned 32-bit integer random value from it.

arc4random_pushk(pbuf)

This function first pushes the pbuf argument to the kernel if possible, then returns an unsigned 32-bit integer random value from the kernel.

This function is deprecated. Use arc4random_pushb instead.

arc4random_stir()

This procedure attempts to retrieve new entropy from the kernel and add it to the libc pool. Usually, this means you must have access to the urandom(4) device; create it inside chroot(2) jails first if you use them.

have_kintf()

This constant function returns 1 if arc4random_pushb and/or arc4random_pushk actually call the kernel interfaces, 0 if they merely map to arc4random_addrandom instead.

High-level functions

arc4random_bytes(num[, pbuf])

This function returns a string containing as many random bytes as requested by the integral argument num. An optional pbuf argument is passed to the system first.

arc4random_uniform(upper_bound)

Calculate a uniformly distributed random number less than upper_bound avoiding "modulo bias".

Package variables

$RANDOM

The $RANDOM returns a random value in the range [0; 32767] on each read attempt and pushes any value it is assigned to the kernel. It is tied at module load time.

tie variable, 'BSD::arc4random'[, max]

You can tie any scalar variable to this package; the max argument is the maximum number returned; if undefined, 0 or >= 0xFFFFFFFF, no bound is used, and values in the range [0; 2**32-1] are returned. They will behave like $RANDOM.