topic unknown math function "rand" in Operating System - HP-UX

unknown math function "rand"

Dewa Negara_4 — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 00:34:11 GMT

Hi All,

I have a script that using rand function. When I tried to run it, I got an error below. Anyone know what the issue? Is there any patch need to be installed to resolve the issue? Please help.

Thanks.
Negara

unknown math function "rand"
while executing
"expr {int($m*rand())}"
(procedure "rand" line 3)
invoked from within
"rand 2"
invoked from within
"set isleft [rand 2]..."
invoked from within
"set initially_left [set isleft [rand 2]]..."
(file "./mkpasswd" line 108)

Re: unknown math function "rand"

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 01:02:51 GMT

RAND(3) Linux Programmerâ s Manual RAND(3)

NAME
rand, srand - random number generator.

SYNOPSIS
#include

int rand(void);

void srand(unsigned int seed);

DESCRIPTION
The rand() function returns a pseudo-random integer between 0 and
RAND_MAX.

The srand() function sets its argument as the seed for a new sequence
of pseudo-random integers to be returned by rand(). These sequences
are repeatable by calling srand() with the same seed value.

If no seed value is provided, the rand() function is automatically
seeded with a value of 1.

Seems like a standard function to me.

S

Re: unknown math function "rand"

Mark Grant — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 01:24:10 GMT

I'm a bit confused here, what language is this script written with? It almost looks like shell but almost looks like C too.

If you are using C then you need to include stdlib as SEP points out above. If you are using shell, you need to use the $RANDOM (which is a bit rubbish really). It looks like whichever language you are using here doesn't have the "rand()" function you are looking for.

Re: unknown math function "rand"

Matti_Kurkela — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 04:55:05 GMT

As Mark Grant said, this looks a bit like C but some parts read like a shell script... is this Perl?

If it is, the next question will be: which version? "perl -v" will tell you that.

Older releases of HP-UX 11.0 had a very old Perl version by default. There are depots of
Perl 5.6.1 and Perl 5.8 available for free at software.hp.com: look in "development tools".