Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man makeuuid

System Administration Commands                       makeuuid(1M)



NAME
     makeuuid - generate Universal Unique Identifiers

SYNOPSIS
     makeuuid [-e ether] [-n count] [-R root]


DESCRIPTION
     The makeuuid command generates UUIDs (Universal Unique Iden-
     tifiers)  conforming to the OSF DCE specification for UUIDs.
     The specification states:


     "A UUID is an identifier that is unique  across  both  space
     and time, with respect to the space of all UUIDs. A UUID can
     be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with  an
     extremely  short lifetime, to reliably identifying very per-
     sistent objects across a network.


     "The generation of UUIDs does  not  require  a  registration
     authority for each single identifier. Instead, it requires a
     unique value over space for each UUID generator.  This  spa-
     tially  unique  value is [normally] specified as an IEEE 802
     address,  which  is  usually  already  applied  to  network-
     connected systems."


     The makeuuid command generates one  or  more  UUIDs  on  the
     standard output.

OPTIONS
     The makeuuid command supports the following options:

     -e ether    Supplies an alternate address to be used in  the
                 generation  of the UUIDs. Normally, the system's
                 Ethernet address is acquired and used during the
                 generation  of  a  UUID.  However, this requires
                 root privileges to open  and  read  the  network
                 devices.  If this is not possible, you must sup-
                 ply an alternate Ethernet address.


     -n count    Generate multiple UUIDs. This  option  generates
                 the  specified  number  of  UUIDs, one per line.
                 Using this form  is  more  efficient  than,  and
                 functionally equivalent to, calling the makeuuid
                 command multiple times. This can  be  used,  for
                 example, when a large number of UUIDs need to be
                 generated for a given application.





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System Administration Commands                       makeuuid(1M)



     -R root     Use root as the root filesystem path when updat-
                 ing  the  shared  state  file  (see  FILES). The
                 shared state file must be writable by  the  user
                 running  makeuuid,  otherwise  no  UUIDs will be
                 generated  and  the  command  will   return   in
                 failure.

                 Note -

                   The root file system of any  non-global  zones
                   must  not  be  referenced  with the -R option.
                   Doing so might damage the global  zone's  file
                   system,  might  compromise the security of the
                   global zone, and might damage  the  non-global
                   zone's file system. See zones(5).


USAGE
     Normally, you run the makeuuid command with root privileges,
     as  the  Ethernet  address  and  state  files  can be easily
     accessed and updated. If this is not possible, you must  use
     the  -R and -e options to specify an alternate root and Eth-
     ernet address to use when calculating the UUIDs.

EXAMPLES
     Example 1 Generating Multiple UUIDs


     The following command generates 3000 UUIDs:


       example# makeuuid -n 3000



     Example 2 Invoking Without Root Privileges


     If you cannot obtain root privileges, you  must  specify  an
     alternate Ethernet address and state file location:


       example% makeuuid -e 11:22:33:44:55:66 -R /export/root/example2




     See the caveat on the use of the -R option in  the  descrip-
     tion of that option, above.






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System Administration Commands                       makeuuid(1M)



EXIT STATUS
     The following exit values are returned:

     0     Successful completion.


     1     Out of memory.


     -1    Invalid Ethernet address given or access denied.


FILES
     /var/sadm/system/uuid_state

         UUID state file. Use of time values is one way that UUID
         generators,  such  as  makeuuid, guarantee uniqueness. A
         state file  is  a  mechanism  that  allows  makeuuid  to
         "remember"  the last time value it used so it can incre-
         ment that value for use in a new UUID. See the  Internet
         Draft  "UUIDs  and  GUIDs,"  dated February 4, 1998, for
         details on the state file mechanism.


ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:



     __________________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |          ATTRIBUTE VALUE          |
    |_____________________________|___________________________________|
    | Availability                | system/management/product-registry|
    |_____________________________|___________________________________|


SEE ALSO
     prodreg(1M), intro(3), libwsreg(3LIB), attributes(5)

NOTES
     The formal UUID specification is in the OSF  DCE  specifica-
     tion, available at www.opengroup.org. As of the date of pub-
     lication of this man page, a copy of  the  specification  is
     available at:

       http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9629399/apdxa.htm








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System Administration Commands                       makeuuid(1M)



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