c++ generate a good random seed for psudo random number generators
- by posop
I am trying to generate a good random seed for a psudo-random number generator. I thought I'd get the expert's opinions. let me know if this is a bad way of doing it or if there are much better ways.
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <fstream>
#include <ctime>
unsigned int good_seed()
{
unsigned int random_seed, random_seed_a, random_seed_b;
std::ifstream file ("/dev/random", std::ios::binary);
if (file.is_open())
{
char * memblock;
int size = sizeof(int);
memblock = new char [size];
file.read (memblock, size);
file.close();
random_seed_a = int(memblock);
delete[] memblock;
}// end if
else
{
random_seed_a = 0;
}
random_seed_b = std::time(0);
random_seed = random_seed_a xor random_seed_b;
return random_seed;
} // end good_seed()
