where is my RANDOM ? 2

[stfaprc]

using tcsh 6.12.00

I want to wait a random amount of time in one of my scripts,
but can not figure out how to do so.

[760 /home/second]# service random status
The random data source exists
[761 /home/second]# echo $RANDOM
RANDOM: Undefined variable.
[762 /home/second]# echo $random
random: Undefined variable.

What am I missing / not understanding ?

 

[thedaver]

not sure of your requirements... do you see a /dev/random?

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[stfaprc]

yes,

ls -l /dev/random
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 1, 8 Jan 30 2003 /dev/random

I need to wait a random amount of seconds each time a smrsh script gets called.

 

[elgrandeperro]

tcsh does not have a builtin $RANDOM, I believe bash and ksh have it. You will need to call bash or the like to get one:

x=`/bin/bash -c 'echo $RANDOM'`
echo $x

 

[stfaprc]

wow, i would have thought bash/ksh would not have it and tcsh to provide it

thanks, that worked out.

 

[Annihilannic]

Or you could use something like this to get a 16-bit random unsigned integer:

x=`head -2c /dev/random  | od -t u2 -An`

Annihilannic.

 

[elgrandeperro]

Geez, thanks. I had no idea that one could read that way from the pseudo device. Cool.