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Get a randon number in scripts
NOTE: produce a number  0 - $LIMIT-1
  nawk:
     set num=`nawk 'BEGIN { srand();
               printf "%d",  rand()*$LIMIT
              }' /dev/null`

  date:
     set date=`date +%j%H%M%S`
     set num=`expr $date \% $LIMIT`

  (k/z/ba)sh
      $RANDOM  produces a number from 0.0 to 1.0

Use a psudo random number generator
   #!/bin/csh -f
   #
   #  Random limit   -- produce random number from 1 to limit
   #
   set multiplier = 25173
   set increment =  13849
   set modulus =    65536
   set seedfile =   $HOME/.rnd  # seed file to use

   if ( ! -f $seedfile ) then
      echo '17' > $seedfile
   endif

   @ number = ( `cat $seedfile` * $multiplier + $increment ) % $modulus
   echo $number > $seedfile

   @ number = $number % $1 + 1
   echo $number

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