xref: /openbsd/share/man/man9/idgen32.9 (revision e5dd7070)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 2008 Damien Miller <djm@mindrot.org>
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18.Dd $Mdocdate: November 23 2015 $
19.Dt IDGEN32 9
20.Os
21.Sh NAME
22.Nm idgen32 ,
23.Nm idgen32_init
24.Nd non-repeating ID generation
25.Sh SYNOPSIS
26.In crypto/idgen.h
27.Ft void
28.Fn idgen32_init "struct idgen32_ctx *ctx"
29.Ft uint32_t
30.Fn idgen32 "struct idgen32_ctx *ctx"
31.Sh DESCRIPTION
32The
33.Fn idgen32
34functions provide a facility to generate a stream of 32-bit numbers
35that are strongly unpredictable and have a repetition cycle close to
362^32.
37Such numbers are useful as protocol identifiers where there are negative
38consequences to reusing an ID within a short time period, as may happen
39if they are simply assigned at random.
40.Pp
41The
42.Fn idgen32_init
43function prepares a context structure for use.
44.Pp
45The
46.Fn idgen32
47function returns a new ID in host byte order.
48Note that this function will never return 0 as it often has a special
49meaning in network protocols.
50.Sh SEE ALSO
51.Xr arc4random 9
52.Sh HISTORY
53The
54.Nm
55functions were added in
56.Ox 4.4 .
57