Random folder name

blaster_master

How can one generate random folder names in Unix, if possible? e.g. the name of a certain folder changes automatically every hour or so (not necessarily seeking a built-in feature. 3rd parties welcome).

Thanks in advance.

thorpe

probably the easiest way is to just use the date function to generate a timestamp. maybe using nanoseconds? eg;

mkdir date +%N

dalecosp

What's the point, exactly? Security by obscurity? Simply wanting gibberish names? Got so many folders you don't know what to call them anymore?

blaster_master

dalecosp wrote:
What's the point, exactly? Security by obscurity? Simply wanting gibberish names? Got so many folders you don't know what to call them anymore?

The points are Security by obscurity (pretty much like in online sharing servers such as rapidshare) and simply wanting gibberish names.

I have tried date function but the name won't change once it is assigned.

P.S> By the way the system is switched to Unix.

thorpe

I have tried date function but the name won't change once it is assigned.

what does that meen? what are you trying to do exactly?

blaster_master

e.g. the name of a certain folder changes automatically every hour or so

In response to what I did, I used the command mkdir date +%H%M%S to generate a folder with the name hour/minutes/seconds (or somehting similar). The folder was successfully created but the name wouldn't change.

THanks for your help.

dalecosp

Well, "the name wouldn't change" seems to imply either a permissions problem or a problem in the interaction between the "changing" terminal/process and the operating system.

If you want some real randomness, get creative; use the "rand()" and associated functions in PHP to create random numbers for some variables; use these along with fread() to grab a random section of /usr/share/dict/words, pick random words from this section, hash 'em with md5(), chunk_split them in random size chunks and assemble a suitable string. Heck, for fun, you could serialize them or encode them in base_64 or something; it's not as difficult as it sounds, it'd be pretty random, and you'd have fun learning all those functions....

thorpe

The folder was successfully created but the name wouldn't change

change from what?

jerdo

What it appears he is trying to do is take an existing directory and change it's name to a random one, which just running mkdir will not do. Check into using mv instead of mkdir.

mv currentdirectoryname newdirectoryname

thorpe

im almost positive thats what the op wanted, but the explination provided was absolutely non existant.

i hate guessing games.

dalecosp

thorpe wrote:
im almost positive thats what the op wanted, but the explination provided was absolutely non existant.

i hate guessing games.

Well, they are certainly bad in business. Ever worked for hours on something to hear, "well, that looks OK but not like what I had in mind....." ?? :rolleyes: :mad: