#26381 [Opn]: rand() without srand() doesn't work

ID: 26381 User updated by: spam at vrana dot cz Reported By: spam at vrana dot cz Status: Open -Bug Type: Documentation problem +Bug Type: Math related Operating System: Windows XP PHP Version: 4.3.3 New Comment: The behavior of rand() really changed in PHP 4.2.0, it is stated in Changelog. The documentation is correct. And there is coded this feature in source codes (php-src/ext/standard/rand.c, line 327 in current CVS). I don't know where the problem is, I don't understand PHP internals. I can only see that there is global variable rand_is_seeded set on line 58 and checked on line 326. Maybe the problem is that this variable wasn't initialized. I'm just guessing because as I wrote, I don't understand PHP internals. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 08:57:29] iliaa@php.net Manual is wrong. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 08:46:41] spam at vrana dot cz iliaa, please read the manual yourself before stating bugs as bogus. As I already wrote here, the manual says: As of PHP 4.2.0, there is no need to seed the random number generator with srand() or mt_srand() as this is now done automatically. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 08:41:49] iliaa@php.net Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php For random numbers you MUST call srand() before rand(). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 04:53:44] spam at vrana dot cz Unfortunately it behaves the same with Windows snapshots. For case it's not obvious from my fist comment - if I call srand() before rand() it works well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 04:24:32] sniper@php.net Please try using this CVS snapshot: http://snaps.php.net/php4-STABLE-latest.tar.gz For Windows: http://snaps.php.net/win32/php4-win32-STABLE-latest.zip Works fine for me within Windows XP, within Apache and CLI. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at http://bugs.php.net/26381 -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=26381&edit=1