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From: martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: random numbers in awk?
Message-ID: <1136@mwtech.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 91 15:39:58 GMT
References: <26019@adm.brl.mil> <1991Apr24.041134.14519@athena.mit.edu>
Reply-To: martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel)
Organization: MIKROS Systemware, Darmstadt/W-Germany
Lines: 13

In article <1991Apr24.041134.14519@athena.mit.edu> jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes:
>
>  [...] another possibility is
>to use the jot(1) program to generate a random number, if your system has jot.

SysV User's should note that they have a similar program, called random.
It's range of output values is restricted to 0..255 (the upper limit must
be specified as a calling argument). If you need larger numbers, you
can, of course, call random twice, multiply the result of the first
call by 256, add the result of the second call, and take the whole thing
modulo the largest number you want. 
-- 
Martin Weitzel, email: martin@mwtech.UUCP, voice: 49-(0)6151-6 56 83