misc/uuidgen.1.in

   1 .\" Copyright 1999 Andreas Dilger (adilger@enel.ucalgary.ca)
   2 .\"
   3 .\" This man page was created for libuuid.so.1.1 from e2fsprogs-1.14.
   4 .\"
   5 .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
   6 .\"
   7 .\" Created  Wed Mar 10 17:42:12 1999, Andreas Dilger
   8 .TH UUIDGEN 1 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
   9 .SH NAME
  10 uuidgen \- command\-line utility to create a new UUID value
  11 .SH SYNOPSIS
  12 .B uuidgen
  13 [
  14 .B \-r
  15 |
  16 .B \-t
  17 ]
  18 .SH DESCRIPTION
  19 The
  20 .B uuidgen
  21 program creates (and prints)
  22 a new universally unique identifier (UUID) using the
  23 .BR libuuid (3)
  24 library.  The new UUID can reasonably be considered unique among
  25 all UUIDs created on the local system,
  26 and among UUIDs created on other systems in the past
  27 and in the future.
  28 .PP
  29 There are two types of UUID's which
  30 .B uuidgen
  31 can generate: time-based UUID's and random-based UUID's.  By
  32 default
  33 .B uuidgen
  34 will generate a random-based UUID if a high-quality random number
  35 generator is present.  Otherwise, it will chose a time-based UUID.  It
  36 is possible to force the generation of one of these two
  37 UUID types by using the
  38 .B \-r
  39 or
  40 .B \-t
  41 options.
  42 .SH OPTIONS
  43 .TP
  44 .B \-r
  45 Generate a random-based UUID.  This method creates a UUID consisting mostly
  46 of random bits.  It requires that the operating system have a high
  47 quality random number generator, such as
  48 .IR /dev/random .
  49 .TP
  50 .B \-t
  51 Generate a time-based UUID.  This method creates a UUID based on the system
  52 clock plus the system's ethernet hardware address, if present.
  53 .SH "CONFORMING TO"
  54 OSF DCE 1.1
  55 .SH AUTHOR
  56 .B uuidgen
  57 was written by Andreas Dilger for libuuid.
  58 .SH AVAILABILITY
  59 .B uuidgen
  60 is part of libuuid from the e2fsprogs package and is available from
  61 http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net.
  62 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  63 .BR libuuid (3)