I'm trying to select a random item from a list with awk, but I'm finding that awk's rand() feature isn't quite working as expected.
...which isn't really random.
Am I doing something wrong? Is there a different way I should be using this?
Code:
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889922
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.88993
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.88993
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889938
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889938
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889946
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889946
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889954
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889962
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889962
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889969
% awk 'BEGIN{ srand(); print rand(); }'
0.889969
...which isn't really random.
Am I doing something wrong? Is there a different way I should be using this?