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Re: use of rand() in zsh

X-seq: zsh-workers 50773
From: Clinton Bunch <cdb_zsh@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "zsh-workers@xxxxxxx" <zsh-workers@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: use of rand() in zsh
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2022 20:27:45 -0500
Archived-at: <https://zsh.org/workers/50773>
In-reply-to: <CAH+w=7aLYB7S5Ohdrc2wWEaNWfY+6B6GdY4oSrpPF+x_7QfwDQ@mail.gmail.com>
List-id: <zsh-workers.zsh.org>
References: <ebba340d-821c-7bfd-794e-4b9b55f66868@zentaur.org> <CAH+w=7aLYB7S5Ohdrc2wWEaNWfY+6B6GdY4oSrpPF+x_7QfwDQ@mail.gmail.com>

On 10/10/2022 8:14 PM, Bart Schaefer wrote:

On Mon, Oct 10, 2022 at 4:38 PM Clinton Bunch <cdb_zsh@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Is there a reason that zsh goes out of the way (srand_deterministic) to
use the least random "random" function on modern Unix?

      The values of RANDOM form an intentionally-repeatable pseudo-random
      sequence; subshells that reference RANDOM will result in identical
      pseudo-random values unless the value of RANDOM is referenced or
      seeded in the parent shell in between subshell invocations.

This is e.g. so you aren't surprised by referencing $RANDOM inside
$(...) and getting a different result.

Well, I guess that explains why it uses rand, but doesn't really explainto me why you'd *want* this behavior. I would expect to get a differentvalue in a subshell than I got in the parent shell. I'm supposedlylooking for random numbers.


 I guess I side with OpenBSD who changed the default behavior of rand().

Follow-Ups:
- Re: use of rand() in zsh
  - From: Clinton Bunch

References:
- use of rand() in zsh
  - From: Clinton Bunch
- Re: use of rand() in zsh
  - From: Bart Schaefer

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