UUIDD(8)

NAME
uuidd - UUID generation daemon

SYNOPSIS

uuidd [options]

DESCRIPTION

The uuidd daemon is used by the UUID library to generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs), especially time-based UUIDs, in a secure and guaranteed-unique fashion, even in the face of large numbers of threads running on different CPUs trying to grab UUIDs.

OPTIONS

-C, --cont-clock[=number[hd]]
    Activate continuous clock handling for time-based UUIDs. uuidd could use all possible clock values, beginning with the daemon’s start time. The optional argument can be used to set a value for 'max_clock_offset'. This guarantees that a clock value of a UUID will always be within the range of 'max_clock_offset'.

    The option -C or --cont-clock (without an argument) enables the feature with a default 'max_clock_offset' of 2 hours.

    The option -Cnumber or --cont-clock=number enables the feature with a 'max_clock_offset' of number seconds. In case of an appended h or d, number is understood in hours or days. The minimum value is 60 seconds, the maximum value is 365 days.

-d, --debug
    Run uuidd in debugging mode. This prevents uuidd from running as a daemon.

-F, --no-fork
    Do not daemonize using a double-fork.

-k, --kill
    If currently a uuidd daemon is running, kill it.

-n, --uuids number
    When issuing a test request to a running uuidd, request a bulk response of number UUIDs.

-P, --no-pid
    Do not create a pid file.

-p, --pid path
    Specify the pathname where the pid file should be written. By default, the pid file is written to {runstatedir}/uuidd/uuidd.pid.

-q, --quiet
    Suppress some failure messages.

-r, --random
    Test uuidd by trying to connect to a running uuidd daemon and request it to return a random-based UUID.

-S, --socket-activation
    Do not create a socket but instead expect it to be provided by the calling process. This implies --no-fork and --no-pid. This option is intended to be used only with systemd(1). It needs to be enabled with a configure option.

-s, --socket path
    Make uuidd use this pathname for the unix-domain socket. By default, the pathname used is {runstatedir}/uuidd/request. This option is primarily for debugging purposes, since the pathname is hard-coded in the libuuid library.

-T, --timeout number
    Make uuidd exit after number seconds of inactivity.

-t, --time
    Test uuidd by trying to connect to a running uuidd daemon and request it to return a time-based UUID.

-h, --help
    Display help text and exit.

-V, --version
    Display version and exit.

EXAMPLE

Start up a daemon, print 42 random keys, and then stop the daemon:

    uuidd -p /tmp/uuidd.pid -s /tmp/uuidd.socket
    uuidd -d -r -n 42 -s /tmp/uuidd.socket
    uuidd -d -k -s /tmp/uuidd.socket

AUTHOR

The uuidd daemon was written by

SEE ALSO

uuid(3), uuidgen(1)

REPORTING BUGS

For bug reports, use the

AVAILABILITY

The uuidd command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from