3.2 rand -- An interface to the OpenSSL pseudo random number generator

This module handles the OpenSSL pseudo random number generator (PRNG) and declares the following:

add(string, entropy)
Mix bytes from string into the PRNG state. The entropy argument is (the lower bound of) an estimate of how much randomness is contained in string, measured in bytes. For more information, see e.g. RFC 1750.

egd(path[, bytes])
Query the Entropy Gathering Daemon2 on socket path for bytes bytes of random data and and uses add to seed the PRNG. The default value of bytes is 255.

load_file(path[, bytes])
Read bytes bytes (or all of it, if bytes is negative) of data from the file path to seed the PRNG. The default value of bytes is -1.

screen()
Add the current contents of the screen to the PRNG state. Availability: Windows.

seed(string)
This is equivalent to calling add with entropy as the length of the string.

status()
Returns true if the PRNG has been seeded with enough data, and false otherwise.

write_file(path)
Write a number of random bytes (currently 1024) to the file path. This file can then be used with load_file to seed the PRNG again.



Footnotes

... Daemon2
See http://www.lothar.com/tech/crypto/