this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid [I ❤️ Linux] (feddit.org)
submitted 17 hours ago by A_norny_mousse@feddit.org to c/linux@programming.dev
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

That's all. I just found this in a random script. Generates a random UUID every time it's called. I didn't know.

Of course I can also use uuidgen or pipe /dev/(u)random into something to get a random alphanumeric string - but this is built right into the kernel!

In /proc/sys/kernel/random/, there's also boot_id which seems to do the same, and some tweakable parameters.

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago (3 children) 
cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid | /dev/null
[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The information will be evenly distributed upon its surface and some believe one day it will be be radiated back out into the rest of the system.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 hours ago

That's a horrifying concept. Better not think about it.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

That reminds me of the CPU stress test I ran many years ago.

dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null

If you have 8 cores, just open 8 terminals, and run that code in each of them.

[–] YerbaYerba@lemm.ee 2 points 7 hours ago

/dev/urandom should stress the CPU more. /dev/random can be entropy limited

[–] lime@feddit.nu 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) 
for i in {1..n}  # where n == number of cores
do
  dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null &
done

# to stop:
jobs -p | xargs kill