On Wed, Nov 26, 2025 at 12:56:23AM +0800, Kang-Che Sung wrote: > On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 11:29 AM Osama Abdelkader > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Add a simple uuidgen utility that generates RFC 4122 compliant > > UUIDs (version 4, random). Uses the existing generate_uuid() > > function from libbb. > > > > Features: > > - Generates standard format UUIDs: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx > > - RFC 4122 version 4 compliant > > - Minimal implementation (~1.1 kb) > > - NOFORK applet for efficiency > > A simple reminder that, in Linux, > `cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid` can be an alias to uuidgen.
Thanks for the reminder! Yes, on Linux systems with /proc mounted, "cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid" can generate UUIDs. However, there are a few cases where a standalone uuidgen applet is still useful for BusyBox: 1. Portability: The /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid interface is Linux-specific. BusyBox runs on platforms/environments where /proc is absent, read-only, or not mounted yet (initramfs, rescue shells, static minimal systems, Android). 2. Consistency: BusyBox already implements many util-linux utilities, including some that overlap with kernel-provided interfaces (e.g. dmesg, mount, fstrim, lsblk). uuidgen fills one of the remaining gaps. 3. Features: Using libbb's generate_uuid() ensures RFC 4122 v4 UUIDs regardless of kernel configuration. Some systems disable /proc/sys/kernel/random/* for security. If these reasons make sense, I'm happy to revise or extend the applet as needed. BR, Osama _______________________________________________ busybox mailing list [email protected] https://lists.busybox.net/mailman/listinfo/busybox
