GSP
Quick Navigator

Search Site

Unix VPS
A - Starter
B - Basic
C - Preferred
D - Commercial
MPS - Dedicated
Previous VPSs
* Sign Up! *

Support
Contact Us
Online Help
Handbooks
Domain Status
Man Pages

FAQ
Virtual Servers
Pricing
Billing
Technical

Network
Facilities
Connectivity
Topology Map

Miscellaneous
Server Agreement
Year 2038
Credits
 

USA Flag

 

 

Man Pages
MCOOKIE(1) User Commands MCOOKIE(1)

mcookie - generate magic cookies for xauth

mcookie [options]

mcookie generates a 128-bit random hexadecimal number for use with the X authority system. Typical usage:

xauth add :0 . mcookie

The "random" number generated is actually the MD5 message digest of random information coming from one of the sources getrandom(2) system call, /dev/urandom, /dev/random, or the libc pseudo-random functions, in this preference order. See also the option --file.

-f, --file file

Use this file as an additional source of randomness (for example /dev/urandom). When file is '-', characters are read from standard input.

-m, --max-size number

Read from file only this number of bytes. This option is meant to be used when reading additional randomness from a file or device.

The number argument may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes KiB=1024, MiB=1024*1024, and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning as "KiB") or the suffixes KB=1000, MB=1000*1000, and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.

-v, --verbose

Inform where randomness originated, with amount of entropy read from each source.

-V, --version

Display version information and exit.

-h, --help

Display help text and exit.

/dev/urandom

/dev/random

It is assumed that none of the randomness sources will block.

md5sum(1), X(7), xauth(1), rand(3)

For bug reports, use the issue tracker at <https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues>.

The mcookie command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

2022-02-14 util-linux 2.37.4

Search for    or go to Top of page |  Section 1 |  Main Index

Powered by GSP Visit the GSP FreeBSD Man Page Interface.
Output converted with ManDoc.