RANDOM.3
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- ." Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
- ." All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
- ." specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
- ."
- ." @(#)random.3 6.2 (Berkeley) 9/29/85
- ."
- .TH RANDOM 3 "September 29, 1985"
- .UC 5
- .SH NAME
- random, srandom, initstate, setstate - better random number generator; routines for changing generators
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .nf
- .ft B
- #include <stdlib.h>
- long random(void)
- void srandom(unsigned fIseedfP)
- char *initstate(unsigned fIseedfP, char *fIstatefP, int fInfP)
- char *setstate(char *fIstatefP)
- .ft R
- .fi
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- .PP
- .B Random
- uses a non-linear additive feedback random number generator employing a
- default table of size 31 long integers to return successive pseudo-random
- numbers in the range from 0 to
- .if t 2us731s10d(mi1.
- .if n (2**31)(mi1.
- The period of this random number generator is very large, approximately
- .if t 16(mu(2us731s10d(mi1).
- .if n 16*((2**31)(mi1).
- .PP
- .B Random/srandom
- have (almost) the same calling sequence and initialization properties as
- .B rand/srand.
- The difference is that
- .BR rand (3)
- produces a much less random sequence (em in fact, the low dozen bits
- generated by rand go through a cyclic pattern. All the bits generated by
- .B random
- are usable. For example, ``random()&01'' will produce a random binary
- value.
- .PP
- Unlike
- .BR srand ,
- .B srandom
- does not return the old seed; the reason for this is that the amount of
- state information used is much more than a single word. (Two other
- routines are provided to deal with restarting/changing random
- number generators). Like
- .BR rand (3),
- however,
- .B random
- will by default produce a sequence of numbers that can be duplicated
- by calling
- .B srandom
- with
- .B 1
- as the seed.
- .PP
- The
- .B initstate
- routine allows a state array, passed in as an argument, to be initialized
- for future use. The size of the state array (in bytes) is used by
- .B initstate
- to decide how sophisticated a random number generator it should use -- the
- more state, the better the random numbers will be.
- (Current "optimal" values for the amount of state information are
- 8, 32, 64, 128, and 256 bytes; other amounts will be rounded down to
- the nearest known amount. Using less than 8 bytes will cause an error).
- The seed for the initialization (which specifies a starting point for
- the random number sequence, and provides for restarting at the same
- point) is also an argument.
- .B Initstate
- returns a pointer to the previous state information array.
- .PP
- Once a state has been initialized, the
- .B setstate
- routine provides for rapid switching between states.
- .B Setstate
- returns a pointer to the previous state array; its
- argument state array is used for further random number generation
- until the next call to
- .B initstate
- or
- .BR setstate .
- .PP
- Once a state array has been initialized, it may be restarted at a
- different point either by calling
- .B initstate
- (with the desired seed, the state array, and its size) or by calling
- both
- .B setstate
- (with the state array) and
- .B srandom
- (with the desired seed).
- The advantage of calling both
- .B setstate
- and
- .B srandom
- is that the size of the state array does not have to be remembered after
- it is initialized.
- .PP
- With 256 bytes of state information, the period of the random number
- generator is greater than
- .if t 2us769s10d,
- .if n 2**69
- which should be sufficient for most purposes.
- .SH AUTHOR
- Earl T. Cohen
- .SH DIAGNOSTICS
- .PP
- If
- .B initstate
- is called with less than 8 bytes of state information, or if
- .B setstate
- detects that the state information has been garbled, error
- messages are printed on the standard error output.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .BR rand (3).
- .SH NOTES
- .B initstate
- and
- .B setstate
- are not declared in
- .IR <stdlib.h> ,
- programmers must provide their own declarations.
- .SH BUGS
- About 2/3 the speed of
- .BR rand (3).