Recommended way to initialize srand?

Question

I need a 'good' way to initialize the pseudo-random number generator in C++. I've found an article that states:

In order to generate random-like numbers, srand is usually initialized to some distinctive value, like those related with the execution time. For example, the value returned by the function time (declared in header ctime) is different each second, which is distinctive enough for most randoming needs.

Unixtime isn't distinctive enough for my application. What's a better way to initialize this? Bonus points if it's portable, but the code will primarily be running on Linux hosts.

I was thinking of doing some pid/unixtime math to get an int, or possibly reading data from /dev/urandom.

Thanks!

EDIT

Yes, I am actually starting my application multiple times a second and I've run into collisions.

Answer 1

This is what I've used for small command line programs that can be run frequently (multiple times a second):

unsigned long seed = mix(clock(), time(NULL), getpid());

Where mix is:

// http://www.concentric.net/~Ttwang/tech/inthash.htm
unsigned long mix(unsigned long a, unsigned long b, unsigned long c)
{
    a=a-b;  a=a-c;  a=a^(c >> 13);
    b=b-c;  b=b-a;  b=b^(a << 8);
    c=c-a;  c=c-b;  c=c^(b >> 13);
    a=a-b;  a=a-c;  a=a^(c >> 12);
    b=b-c;  b=b-a;  b=b^(a << 16);
    c=c-a;  c=c-b;  c=c^(b >> 5);
    a=a-b;  a=a-c;  a=a^(c >> 3);
    b=b-c;  b=b-a;  b=b^(a << 10);
    c=c-a;  c=c-b;  c=c^(b >> 15);
    return c;
}

Answer 2

The best answer is to <random>. If you are using a pre C++11 version you can alternatively look at Boost random number stuff.

But if we are talking about rand() and srand()
The best simplist way is just to use time():

int main()
{
    srand(time(nullptr));

    ...
}

Be sure to do this at the beginning of your program, and not every time you call rand()!

---

Side Note:

NOTE: There is a discussion in the comments below about this being insecure (which is true, but ultimately not relevant (read on)). So an alternative is to seed from the random device /dev/random (or some other secure real(er) random number generator). BUT: Don't let this lull you into a false sense of security. This is rand() we are using. Even if you seed it with a brilliantly generated seed it is still predictable (if you have any value you can predict the full sequence of next values). This is only useful for generating "pseudo" random values.

If you want "secure" you should probably be using <random> (Though I would do some more reading on a security informed site). See the answer below as a starting point: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29190957/14065 for a better answer.

Secondary note: Using random device actually solves the issues with starting multiple copies per second better than my original suggestion below (just not the security issue).

---

Back to original story:

Every time you start up, time() will return a unique value (unless you start the application multiple times a second). In 32 bit systems, it will only repeat every 60 years or so.

I know you don't think time is unique enough but I find that hard to believe. But I have been known to be wrong.

If you are starting a lot of copies of your application simultaneously you could use a timer with a finer resolution. But then you run the risk of a shorter time period before the value repeats.

OK, so if you really think you are starting multiple applications a second.
Then use a finer grain on the timer.

 int main()
 {
     struct timeval time; 
     gettimeofday(&time,NULL);

     // microsecond has 1 000 000
     // Assuming you did not need quite that accuracy
     // Also do not assume the system clock has that accuracy.
     srand((time.tv_sec * 1000) + (time.tv_usec / 1000));

     // The trouble here is that the seed will repeat every
     // 24 days or so.

     // If you use 100 (rather than 1000) the seed repeats every 248 days.

     // Do not make the MISTAKE of using just the tv_usec
     // This will mean your seed repeats every second.
 }

Answer 3

if you need a better random number generator, don't use the libc rand. Instead just use something like /dev/random or /dev/urandom directly (read in an int directly from it or something like that).

The only real benefit of the libc rand is that given a seed, it is predictable which helps with debugging.

Answer 4

On windows:

srand(GetTickCount());

provides a better seed than time() since its in milliseconds.

Answer 5

C++11 random_device

If you need reasonable quality then you should not be using rand() in the first place; you should use the <random> library. It provides lots of great functionality like a variety of engines for different quality/size/performance trade-offs, re-entrancy, and pre-defined distributions so you don't end up getting them wrong. It may even provide easy access to non-deterministic random data, (e.g., /dev/random), depending on your implementation.

#include <random>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::random_device r;
    std::seed_seq seed{r(), r(), r(), r(), r(), r(), r(), r()};
    std::mt19937 eng(seed);

    std::uniform_int_distribution<> dist{1,100};

    for (int i=0; i<50; ++i)
        std::cout << dist(eng) << '\n';
}

eng is a source of randomness, here a built-in implementation of mersenne twister. We seed it using random_device, which in any decent implementation will be a non-determanistic RNG, and seed_seq to combine more than 32-bits of random data. For example in libc++ random_device accesses /dev/urandom by default (though you can give it another file to access instead).

Next we create a distribution such that, given a source of randomness, repeated calls to the distribution will produce a uniform distribution of ints from 1 to 100. Then we proceed to using the distribution repeatedly and printing the results.

Answer 6

Best way is to use another pseudorandom number generator. Mersenne twister (and Wichmann-Hill) is my recommendation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_twister

Answer 7

i suggest you see unix_random.c file in mozilla code. ( guess it is mozilla/security/freebl/ ...) it should be in freebl library.

there it uses system call info ( like pwd, netstat ....) to generate noise for the random number;it is written to support most of the platforms (which can gain me bonus point :D ).

Answer 8

The real question you must ask yourself is what randomness quality you need.

libc random is a LCG

The quality of randomness will be low whatever input you provide srand with.

If you simply need to make sure that different instances will have different initializations, you can mix process id (getpid), thread id and a timer. Mix the results with xor. Entropy should be sufficient for most applications.

Example :

struct timeb tp;
ftime(&tp);   
srand(static_cast<unsigned int>(getpid()) ^ 
static_cast<unsigned int>(pthread_self()) ^ 
static_cast<unsigned int >(tp.millitm));

For better random quality, use /dev/urandom. You can make the above code portable in using boost::thread and boost::date_time.

Answer 9

The c++11 version of the top voted post by Jonathan Wright:

#include <ctime>
#include <random>
#include <thread>

...

const auto time_seed = static_cast<size_t>(std::time(0));
const auto clock_seed = static_cast<size_t>(std::clock());
const size_t pid_seed =
      std::hash<std::thread::id>()(std::this_thread::get_id());

std::seed_seq seed_value { time_seed, clock_seed, pid_seed };

...
// E.g seeding an engine with the above seed.
std::mt19937 gen;
gen.seed(seed_value);

Answer 10

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
main()
{
     struct timeval tv;
     gettimeofday(&tv,NULL);
     printf("%d\n",  tv.tv_usec);
     return 0;
}

tv.tv_usec is in microseconds. This should be acceptable seed.

Answer 11

As long as your program is only running on Linux (and your program is an ELF executable), you are guaranteed that the kernel provides your process with a unique random seed in the ELF aux vector. The kernel gives you 16 random bytes, different for each process, which you can get with getauxval(AT_RANDOM). To use these for srand, use just an int of them, as such:

#include <sys/auxv.h>

void initrand(void)
{
    unsigned int *seed;

    seed = (unsigned int *)getauxval(AT_RANDOM);
    srand(*seed);
}

It may be possible that this also translates to other ELF-based systems. I'm not sure what aux values are implemented on systems other than Linux.

Answer 12

Suppose you have a function with a signature like:

int foo(char *p);

An excellent source of entropy for a random seed is a hash of the following:

• Full result of clock_gettime (seconds and nanoseconds) without throwing away the low bits - they're the most valuable.
• The value of p, cast to uintptr_t.
• The address of p, cast to uintptr_t.

At least the third, and possibly also the second, derive entropy from the system's ASLR, if available (the initial stack address, and thus current stack address, is somewhat random).

I would also avoid using rand/srand entirely, both for the sake of not touching global state, and so you can have more control over the PRNG that's used. But the above procedure is a good (and fairly portable) way to get some decent entropy without a lot of work, regardless of what PRNG you use.

Answer 13

For those using Visual Studio here's yet another way:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <time.h>
#include <windows.h> 

const __int64 DELTA_EPOCH_IN_MICROSECS= 11644473600000000;

struct timezone2 
{
  __int32  tz_minuteswest; /* minutes W of Greenwich */
  bool  tz_dsttime;     /* type of dst correction */
};

struct timeval2 {
__int32    tv_sec;         /* seconds */
__int32    tv_usec;        /* microseconds */
};

int gettimeofday(struct timeval2 *tv/*in*/, struct timezone2 *tz/*in*/)
{
  FILETIME ft;
  __int64 tmpres = 0;
  TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION tz_winapi;
  int rez = 0;

  ZeroMemory(&ft, sizeof(ft));
  ZeroMemory(&tz_winapi, sizeof(tz_winapi));

  GetSystemTimeAsFileTime(&ft);

  tmpres = ft.dwHighDateTime;
  tmpres <<= 32;
  tmpres |= ft.dwLowDateTime;

  /*converting file time to unix epoch*/
  tmpres /= 10;  /*convert into microseconds*/
  tmpres -= DELTA_EPOCH_IN_MICROSECS; 
  tv->tv_sec = (__int32)(tmpres * 0.000001);
  tv->tv_usec = (tmpres % 1000000);


  //_tzset(),don't work properly, so we use GetTimeZoneInformation
  rez = GetTimeZoneInformation(&tz_winapi);
  tz->tz_dsttime = (rez == 2) ? true : false;
  tz->tz_minuteswest = tz_winapi.Bias + ((rez == 2) ? tz_winapi.DaylightBias : 0);

  return 0;
}


int main(int argc, char** argv) {

  struct timeval2 tv;
  struct timezone2 tz;

  ZeroMemory(&tv, sizeof(tv));
  ZeroMemory(&tz, sizeof(tz));

  gettimeofday(&tv, &tz);

  unsigned long seed = tv.tv_sec ^ (tv.tv_usec << 12);

  srand(seed);

}

Maybe a bit overkill but works well for quick intervals. gettimeofday function found here.

Edit: upon further investigation rand_s might be a good alternative for Visual Studio, it's not just a safe rand(), it's totally different and doesn't use the seed from srand. I had presumed it was almost identical to rand just "safer".

To use rand_s just don't forget to #define _CRT_RAND_S before stdlib.h is included.

Answer 14

Assuming that the randomness of srand() + rand() is enough for your purposes, the trick is in selecting the best seed for srand. time(NULL) is a good starting point, but you'll run into problems if you start more than one instance of the program within the same second. Adding the pid (process id) is an improvement as different instances will get different pids. I would multiply the pid by a factor to spread them more.

But let's say you are using this for some embedded device and you have several in the same network. If they are all powered at once and you are launching the several instances of your program automatically at boot time, they may still get the same time and pid and all the devices will generate the same sequence of "random" numbers. In that case, you may want to add some unique identifier of each device (like the CPU serial number).

The proposed initialization would then be:

srand(time(NULL) + 1000 * getpid() + (uint) getCpuSerialNumber()); 

In a Linux machine (at least in the Raspberry Pi where I tested this), you can implement the following function to get the CPU Serial Number:

// Gets the CPU Serial Number as a 64 bit unsigned int. Returns 0 if not found.
uint64_t getCpuSerialNumber() {

    FILE *f = fopen("/proc/cpuinfo", "r");
    if (!f) {
        return 0;
    }

    char line[256];
    uint64_t serial = 0;
    while (fgets(line, 256, f)) {
        if (strncmp(line, "Serial", 6) == 0) {
            serial = strtoull(strchr(line, ':') + 2, NULL, 16);
        }
    }
    fclose(f);

    return serial;
}

Answer 15

Include the header at the top of your program, and write:

srand(time(NULL));

In your program before you declare your random number. Here is an example of a program that prints a random number between one and ten:

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
   //Initialize srand
   srand(time(NULL));

   //Create random number
   int n = rand() % 10 + 1;

   //Print the number
   cout << n << endl; //End the line

   //The main function is an int, so it must return a value
   return 0;
}