Version 0 of 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