misc-utils/uuidgen.1

   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 "June 2011" "util-linux" "User Commands"
   9 .SH NAME
  10 uuidgen \- create a new UUID value
  11 .SH SYNOPSIS
  12 .B uuidgen
  13 [\fIoptions\fR]
  14 .SH DESCRIPTION
  15 The
  16 .B uuidgen
  17 program creates (and prints)
  18 a new universally unique identifier (UUID) using the
  19 .BR libuuid (3)
  20 library.  The new UUID can reasonably be considered unique among
  21 all UUIDs created on the local system,
  22 and among UUIDs created on other systems in the past
  23 and in the future.
  24 .PP
  25 There are two types of UUIDs which
  26 .B uuidgen
  27 can generate: time-based UUIDs and random-based UUIDs.  By default
  28 .B uuidgen
  29 will generate a random-based UUID if a high-quality random number
  30 generator is present.  Otherwise, it will choose a time-based UUID.
  31 It is possible to force the generation of one of these two
  32 UUID types by using the
  33 .B \-r
  34 or
  35 .B \-t
  36 options.
  37 .SH OPTIONS
  38 .TP
  39 .BR \-r , " \-\-random"
  40 Generate a random-based UUID.  This method creates a UUID consisting mostly
  41 of random bits.  It requires that the operating system have a high
  42 quality random number generator, such as
  43 .IR /dev/random .
  44 .TP
  45 .BR \-t , " \-\-time"
  46 Generate a time-based UUID.  This method creates a UUID based on the system
  47 clock plus the system's ethernet hardware address, if present.
  48 .TP
  49 .BR \-h , " \-\-help"
  50 Display help text and exit.
  51 .TP
  52 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
  53 Display version information and exit.
  54 .SH "CONFORMING TO"
  55 OSF DCE 1.1
  56 .SH AUTHOR
  57 .B uuidgen
  58 was written by Andreas Dilger for libuuid.
  59 .SH AVAILABILITY
  60 The uuidgen command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
  61 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
  62 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  63 .BR libuuid (3)