Provided by: openswan_2.4.6+dfsg.2-1.1build2_i386 bug

NAME

        ipsec ranbits - generate random bits in ASCII form

SYNOPSIS

        ipsec ranbits [ --quick ] [ --continuous ] [ --bytes ] nbits

DESCRIPTION

        Ranbits  obtains  nbits  (rounded  up to the nearest byte) high-quality
        random bits from random(4), and emits them on  standard  output  as  an
        ASCII string.  The default output format is datatot(3) h format: lower‐
        case hexadecimal with a 0x prefix and an underscore every 32 bits.
 
        The --quick option produces quick-and-dirty  random  bits:  instead  of
        using  the  high-quality  random  bits from /dev/random, which may take
        some time to supply the necessary bits if nbits is large, ranbits  uses
        /dev/urandom, which yields prompt results but lower-quality randomness.
 
        The --continuous option uses datatot(3) x output  format,  like  h  but
        without the underscores.
 
        The  --bytes  option  causes  nbits  to  be interpreted as a byte count
        rather than a bit count.

FILES

        /dev/random, /dev/urandom
        ipsec_datatot(3), random(4)

HISTORY

        Written for the Linux FreeS/WAN  project  <http://www.freeswan.org>  by
        Henry Spencer.

BUGS

        There is an internal limit on nbits, currently 20000.
 
        Without --quick, ranbits’s run time is difficult to predict.  A request
        for a large number of bits, at a time when the system’s entropy pool is
        low on randomness, may take quite a while to satisfy.
 
                                   22 Aug 2000                 IPSEC_RANBITS(8)