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Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 19:55:36 +0900
From: Rob Lahaye <lahaye@snu.ac.kr>
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Subject: Re: randomize execution the a script?
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Charles Howse wrote:
> 
> I don't happen to have random installed on my system, however jot is

It's in /usr/games/random of FreeBSD 4.8.

> Won't randomNumber=$? Just return 0 if the previous command completes
> successfully?
> Shouldn't it be:
> randomNumber=`random -e 60`

No. In 'man 6 random', it says:

     random [-er] [-f filename] [denominator]

     -e      If the -e option is specified, random does not read or write any-
             thing, and simply exits with a random exit value of 0 to
             denominator - 1, inclusive.

So you must capture its exit value for the random number :).

R.