Hi,

I'm trying to fix the subversion-base package's dependency on $RANDOM.
It causes pkgsrc to complain about portability (rightfully so).

In this particular case, all I need is to generate a random integer.
Could probably even use the current process ID for this scenario, but
I'd like to know how to generate a `random' number from userland,
without having to write a program.

How can I get the same behaviour as $RANDOM in a portable way?

From the bash man page:

RANDOM Each time this parameter is referenced, a random integer between
       0 and 32767 is generated.  The sequence of random numbers may be
       initialized by assigning a value to RANDOM.  If RANDOM is unset,
       it loses its special properties,  even  if  it  is  subsequently
       reset.



Louis