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+.TH IPSEC_RANBITS 8 "22 Aug 2000"
+.\" RCSID $Id: ranbits.8,v 1.1 2004/03/15 20:35:30 as Exp $
+.SH NAME
+ipsec ranbits \- generate random bits in ASCII form
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B ipsec
+.B ranbits
+[
+.B \-\-quick
+] [
+.B \-\-continuous
+] [
+.B \-\-bytes
+] nbits
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.I Ranbits
+obtains
+.I nbits
+(rounded up to the nearest byte)
+high-quality random bits from
+.IR random (4),
+and emits them on standard output as an ASCII string.
+The default output format is
+.IR datatot (3)
+.B h
+format:
+lowercase hexadecimal with a
+.B 0x
+prefix and an underscore every 32 bits.
+.PP
+The
+.B \-\-quick
+option produces quick-and-dirty random bits:
+instead of using the high-quality random bits from
+.IR /dev/random ,
+which may take some time to supply the necessary bits if
+.I nbits
+is large,
+.I ranbits
+uses
+.IR /dev/urandom ,
+which yields prompt results but lower-quality randomness.
+.PP
+The
+.B \-\-continuous
+option uses
+.IR datatot (3)
+.B x
+output format, like
+.B h
+but without the underscores.
+.PP
+The
+.B \-\-bytes
+option causes
+.I nbits
+to be interpreted as a byte count rather than a bit count.
+.SH FILES
+/dev/random, /dev/urandom
+.SH SEE ALSO
+ipsec_datatot(3), random(4)
+.SH HISTORY
+Written for the Linux FreeS/WAN project
+<http://www.freeswan.org>
+by Henry Spencer.
+.SH BUGS
+There is an internal limit on
+.IR nbits ,
+currently 20000.
+.PP
+Without
+.BR \-\-quick ,
+.IR ranbits 's
+run time is difficult to predict.
+A request for a large number of bits,
+at a time when the system's entropy pool is low on randomness,
+may take quite a while to satisfy.