[NCLUG] Python access to libc rand() (was: Python v.s. Ruby, and PRNGs)

[Sean Reifschneider]

>Sean is looking into /dev/random numbers. I also wanted to try the C
>library's rand() function, but it seems like that isn't currently exposed

import ctypes
from ctypes.util import find_library
libc = ctypes.CDLL(find_library('c'))
print libc.rand()

Note that RAND_MAX is not exposed, looks like it might be 2147483647 even
on 64-bit installs.

Sean
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Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
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