与此相关的特定于glibc的函数(应该在大多数Linux环境中都可以找到)是random()，或者您可能对其线程安全版本random_r()感兴趣。在将结构体random_data传递给random_r()之前，必须使用initstate_r()初始化它。

下面是一个快速的代码示例:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <time.h>

void xxx (void) {
    unsigned int seed = (unsigned int) time(NULL);
    char rnd_state[17] = {0};
    struct random_data rnd_st_buf = {0};
    initstate_r(seed, &rnd_state[0], 17, &rnd_st_buf);
    for(size_t idx = 0; idx < 8; idx++) {
        int32_t rnd_int = 0;
        char rnd_seq_str[6] = {0};
        random_r(&rnd_st_buf, &rnd_int);
        memcpy((char *)&rnd_seq_str[0], (char *)&rnd_int, 4);
        printf("random number : 0x%08x,  \n", rnd_int);
    }
}

<stdlib.h>中的rand()函数返回一个介于0和RAND_MAX之间的伪随机整数。你可以使用srand(unsigned int seed)来设置种子。

通常的做法是将%操作符与rand()结合使用以获得不同的范围(但请记住，这在一定程度上破坏了一致性)。例如:

/* random int between 0 and 19 */
int r = rand() % 20;

如果你真的在乎一致性，你可以这样做:

/* Returns an integer in the range [0, n).
 *
 * Uses rand(), and so is affected-by/affects the same seed.
 */
int randint(int n) {
  if ((n - 1) == RAND_MAX) {
    return rand();
  } else {
    // Supporting larger values for n would requires an even more
    // elaborate implementation that combines multiple calls to rand()
    assert (n <= RAND_MAX)

    // Chop off all of the values that would cause skew...
    int end = RAND_MAX / n; // truncate skew
    assert (end > 0);
    end *= n;

    // ... and ignore results from rand() that fall above that limit.
    // (Worst case the loop condition should succeed 50% of the time,
    // so we can expect to bail out of this loop pretty quickly.)
    int r;
    while ((r = rand()) >= end);

    return r % n;
  }
}

C程序生成9到50之间的随机数

#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
    srand(time(NULL));
    int lowerLimit = 10, upperLimit = 50;
    int r =  lowerLimit + rand() % (upperLimit - lowerLimit);
    printf("%d", r);
}

通常我们可以生成一个介于lowerLimit和upperLimit-1之间的随机数

例如，lowerLimit包含或说r∈[lowerLimit, upperLimit)

试试这个，我把上面已经提到的一些概念放在一起:

/*    
Uses the srand() function to seed the random number generator based on time value,
then returns an integer in the range 1 to max. Call this with random(n) where n is an integer, and you get an integer as a return value.
 */

int random(int max) {
    srand((unsigned) time(NULL));
    return (rand() % max) + 1;
}

在现代的x86_64 cpu上，您可以通过_rdrand64_step()使用硬件随机数生成器。

示例代码:

#include <immintrin.h>

uint64_t randVal;
if(!_rdrand64_step(&randVal)) {
  // Report an error here: random number generation has failed!
}
// If no error occured, randVal contains a random 64-bit number

如果您需要比stdlib提供的质量更好的伪随机数，请检查Mersenne Twister。它也更快。示例实现有很多，例如这里。