Dev-random

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.
Due to technical limitations, this article uses an unusual title. It should be called  /dev/random.

In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, /dev/random is a special file, which serves as a generator of random numbers. This can be either a truly random number, generated from a source of entropy such as device drivers, or a pseudorandom number generator, in which the numbers are not truly random, but based on an algorithm which creates a diverse range of numbers.