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Re: use of rand() in zsh

X-seq: zsh-workers 50778
From: Clinton Bunch <cdb_zsh@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: zsh-workers@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: use of rand() in zsh
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2022 07:35:31 -0500
Archived-at: <https://zsh.org/workers/50778>
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.

Doesn't zsleep_random's use of rand() break this predictability, or haveI just not studied the use of zsleep_random enough?

Follow-Ups:
- Re: use of rand() in zsh
  - From: Peter Stephenson

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

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