Re: $RANDOM never returns 0 in some conditions

[zavandi]

Some additional info:

These don't work (they should return the same value, right?):

$ (RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM)
21465
$ (RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM)
22374
$ (RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM)
6444

While all of these do:

$ RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM
16838
$ RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM
16838
$ RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM
16838

$ cat bla.sh
#!/bin/bash
RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM
$ ./bla.sh
16838
$ (./bla.sh)
16838

Ctrl+D
(in another terminal)
$ RANDOM=1; echo $RANDOM
16838

Is anyone looking into this?



On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 14:15:41 +0200, zavandi <zavandi@gmail.com> wrote:
> Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
> Machine: i386
> OS: linux-gnu
> Compiler: i386-redhat-linux-gcc
> Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i386'
> -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i386-redhat-linux-gnu'
> -DCONF_VENDOR='redhat' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale'
> -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib
>  -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -O2 -g -pipe -m32 -march=i386 -mtune=pentium4
> uname output: Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.10-1.766_FC3 #1 Wed Feb
> 9 23:06:42 EST 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
> Machine Type: i386-redhat-linux-gnu
> 
> Bash Version: 3.0
> Patch Level: 14
> Release Status: release
> 
> Description:
>         Seems like $RANDOM never returns 0 in some conditions. "some
> conditions" seem to be related to $RANDOM being executed in a
> subshell, but I could be wrong here.
> 
> Repeat-By:
>         This command works correctly, printing (usually) a few OKs:
> 
>         for ((i=0; i< 100000; i++)); do if [ $RANDOM -eq 0 ]; then
> echo OK; fi; done
> 
>         But this other command _never_ prints anything:
> 
>         for ((i=0; i< 100000; i++)); do if [ $RANDOM -eq 0 ]; then
> echo OK; fi; done | cat
> 
>         Neither does this command:
> 
>         (for ((i=0; i< 100000; i++)); do if [ $RANDOM -eq 0 ]; then
> echo OK; fi; done)
>