On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 02:31:29PM -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote: > This seems to generate a random number between 1 and 2^63-1 > > And print a hex > > printf "%X\n" $(shuf -rn 1 -i 1-9223372036854775807 > --random-source=/dev/urandom) > > I don't know if I can trust this as a real random number, but it IS > taking its source from urandom. Plus it is "only" for serial number thus OpenSSL typically just uses /dev/urandom also. If you prefer using OpenSSL, and you're on 64-bit CPU, "bash" or "ksh" can do the requisite arithmetic: r64="0x$(openssl rand -hex 8)" || exit 1 r63=$(printf "%016x\n" $(( $r64 & (2**63-1) )) ) ... do stuff with $r63 ... -- Viktor.