Re: How can Emacs get a unique ID per Linux reboot?

G. Allen Morris III (gam3@ixlabs.com)
Tue, 01 Jun 1999 10:20:43 -0700


How about generating a 32bit random number at boot time. There
is a 1 in 2**32 of getting the same number after a reboot, but
that should not be a large problem.

The hard part would be deciding how to access this number.

Allen

>>>Richard Gooch said:
> H. Peter Anvin writes:
> > Followup to: <199906010238.TAA18495@shade.twinsun.com>
> > By author: Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com>
> > In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> > >
> > > For most operating systems, BOOTID is the timestamp of the last
> > > reboot. For example, if I edit FOO on Solaris 7, Emacs might create a
> > > symbolic link from .#FOO to eggert@shade.twinsun.com.18323:924306205,
> > > since shade.twinsun.com was last rebooted 924306205 seconds after
> > > 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately, RMS and I haven't been able to discover a documented,
> > > guaranteed, and fast way to get a unique reboot ID for Linux.
> > >
> >
> > Get the current uptime from /proc/uptime and subtract that from the
> > current time.
>
> Won't that foul up if the system is suspended (system clock is
> restored from hwclock on resume)?
> And probably also when settimeofday() is called?
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard....
>
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---------------------------------
G. Allen Morris III

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