UUIDGEN(1) User Commands UUIDGEN(1)NAME
uuidgen - create a new UUID value
SYNOPSIS
uuidgen [options]
DESCRIPTION
The uuidgen program creates (and prints) a new universally unique identifier (UUID) using the libuuid(3) library. The new UUID can reason-
ably be considered unique among all UUIDs created on the local system, and among UUIDs created on other systems in the past and in the
future.
There are two types of UUIDs which uuidgen can generate: time-based UUIDs and random-based UUIDs. By default uuidgen will generate a ran-
dom-based UUID if a high-quality random number generator is present. Otherwise, it will choose a time-based UUID. It is possible to force
the generation of one of these two UUID types by using the -r or -t options.
OPTIONS -r, --random
Generate a random-based UUID. This method creates a UUID consisting mostly of random bits. It requires that the operating system
have a high quality random number generator, such as /dev/random.
-t, --time
Generate a time-based UUID. This method creates a UUID based on the system clock plus the system's ethernet hardware address, if
present.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
CONFORMING TO
OSF DCE 1.1
AUTHOR
uuidgen was written by Andreas Dilger for libuuid.
AVAILABILITY
The uuidgen command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
SEE ALSO libuuid(3)util-linux June 2011 UUIDGEN(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
UUIDGEN(1) User Commands UUIDGEN(1)NAME
uuidgen - create a new UUID value
SYNOPSIS
uuidgen [options]
DESCRIPTION
The uuidgen program creates (and prints) a new universally unique identifier (UUID) using the libuuid(3) library. The new UUID can reason-
ably be considered unique among all UUIDs created on the local system, and among UUIDs created on other systems in the past and in the
future.
There are three types of UUIDs which uuidgen can generate: time-based UUIDs, random-based UUIDs, and hash-based UUIDs. By default uuidgen
will generate a random-based UUID if a high-quality random number generator is present. Otherwise, it will choose a time-based UUID. It
is possible to force the generation of one of these first two UUID types by using the --random or --time options.
The third type of UUID is generated with the --md5 or --sha1 options, followed by --namespace namespace and --name name. The namespace may
either be a well-known UUID, or else an alias to one of the well-known UUIDs defined in RFC 4122, that is @dns, @url, @oid, or @x500. The
name is an arbitrary string value. The generated UUID is the digest of the concatentation of the namespace UUID and the name value, hashed
with the MD5 or SHA1 algorithms. It is, therefore, a predictable value which may be useful when UUIDs are being used as handles or nonces
for more complex values or values which shouldn't be disclosed directly. See the RFC for more information.
OPTIONS -r, --random
Generate a random-based UUID. This method creates a UUID consisting mostly of random bits. It requires that the operating system
have a high quality random number generator, such as /dev/random.
-t, --time
Generate a time-based UUID. This method creates a UUID based on the system clock plus the system's ethernet hardware address, if
present.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-m, --md5
Use MD5 as the hash algorithm.
-s, --sha1
Use SHA1 as the hash algorith.
-n, --namespace namespace
Generate the hash with the namespace prefix. The namespace is UUID, or '@ns' where "ns" is well-known predefined UUID addressed by
namespace name (see above).
-N, --name name
Generate the hash of the name.
-x, --hex
Interpret name name as a hexidecimal string.
CONFORMING TO
OSF DCE 1.1
EXAMPLES
uuidgen --sha1 --namespace @dns --name "www.example.com"
AUTHOR
uuidgen was written by Andreas Dilger for libuuid.
SEE ALSO libuuid(3), RFC 4122
AVAILABILITY
The uuidgen command is part of the util-linux package and is available from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
util-linux June 2011 UUIDGEN(1)