High Quality Random (The GNU C Library)

#### 19.8.4 High Quality Random Number Functions ¶

This section describes the random number functions provided as a GNU extension, based on OpenBSD interfaces.

The GNU C Library uses kernel entropy obtained either through `getrandom` or by reading `/dev/urandom` to seed.

These functions provide higher random quality than ISO, BSD, and SVID functions, and may be used in cryptographic contexts.

The prototypes for these functions are in `stdlib.h`.

Function: `uint32_t` arc4random `(void)` ¶

  | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function returns a single 32-bit value in the range of `0` to `2^32−1` (inclusive), which is twice the range of `rand` and `random`.

Function: `void` arc4random_buf `(void *buffer, size_t length)` ¶

  | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function fills the region buffer of length length bytes with random data.

Function: `uint32_t` arc4random_uniform `(uint32_t upper_bound)` ¶

  | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function returns a single 32-bit value, uniformly distributed but less than the upper_bound. It avoids the modulo bias when the upper bound is not a power of two.