uuidgen - command-line utility to create a new UUID value


SYNOPSIS

       uuidgen [ -r | -t ]


DESCRIPTION

       The uuidgen program creates a new universally unique iden­
       tifier (UUID) using the libuuid(3) library.  The new  UUID
       can  reasonably  be considered unique among all UUIDs cre­
       ated on the local system, and among UUIDs created on other
       systems in the past and in the future.

       There  are two types of UUID's which uuidgen can generate:
       time-based UUID's and  random-based  UUID's.   By  default
       uuidgen  will generate a random-based UUID if a high-qual­
       ity random number generator  is  present.   Otherwise,  it
       will chose a time-based UUID.  It is possible to force the
       generation of one of these two UUID types by using the  -r
       or -t options.


OPTIONS

       -r     Generate  a random-based UUID.  This method creates
              a  UUID  consisting  mostly  of  random  bits.   It
              requires  that  the  operating  system  have a high
              quality random number generator, such as  /dev/ran­
              dom.

       -t     Generate  a time-based UUID.  This method creates a
              UUID based on the system clock  plus  the  system's
              ethernet hardware address, if present.


RETURN VALUE

       The  UUID of the form 1b4e28ba-2fa1-11d2-883f-b9a761bde3fb
       (in printf(3) format "%08x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%012x") is  out­
       put to the standard output.


CONFORMING TO

       OSF DCE 1.1


AUTHOR

       uuidgen was written by Andreas Dilger for libuuid.


AVAILABILITY

       uuidgen  is part of libuuid from the e2fsprogs package and
       is available from http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net.


SEE ALSO

       libuuid(3)


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