IPSEC_RANBITS(8)				 IPSEC_RANBITS(8)


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: lowercase 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 neces-
       sary  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

SEE ALSO
       ipsec_datatot(3), random(4)

HISTORY
       Written	   for	   the	   Linux     FreeS/WAN	  project
       <http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeswan/> by Henry Spencer.

BUGS
       There is an internal limit on nbits, currently 20000.

       Without --quick, ranbits's run time is difficult	 to  pre-
       dict.   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				1


