3 nbdkit-random-plugin - plugin to serve random data
7 nbdkit random [size=]SIZE [seed=SEED]
11 C<nbdkit-random-plugin> is a plugin for L<nbdkit(1)> which serves
12 random data. This plugin is mainly good for testing NBD clients.
13 This plugin creates a non-sparse random disk, for a sparse random disk
14 see L<nbdkit-sparse-random-plugin(1)>.
16 The size of the virtual disk must be specified using the C<size>
17 parameter. If you specify the C<seed> parameter then you will get the
18 same random data over multiple runs with the same seed.
20 The random data is generated using an I<insecure> method.
22 =head2 Writes and testing copying
24 Writing to the disk is possible. If you do this the plugin will check
25 that what you are writing exactly matches what would be read at the
26 same offset (if not, it returns EIO error). You can use this to test
27 copying programs by making the source and destination NBD URIs be the
30 nbdkit -U - random size=100M --run 'nbdcopy "$uri" "$uri"'
32 C<qemu-img convert> could be used in place of nbdcopy.
33 See also L<nbdkit-checkwrite-filter(1)>.
41 Specify the virtual size of the disk image.
43 This parameter is required.
45 C<size=> is a magic config key and may be omitted in most cases.
46 See L<nbdkit(1)/Magic parameters>.
50 Specify the random seed to get repeatable data over multiple runs.
52 If not specified then a random seed is chosen.
60 =item F<$plugindir/nbdkit-random-plugin.so>
64 Use C<nbdkit --dump-config> to find the location of C<$plugindir>.
70 C<nbdkit-random-plugin> first appeared in nbdkit 1.4.
76 L<nbdkit-data-plugin(1)>,
77 L<nbdkit-full-plugin(1)>,
78 L<nbdkit-null-plugin(1)>,
79 L<nbdkit-pattern-plugin(1)>,
80 L<nbdkit-sparse-random-plugin(1)>,
81 L<nbdkit-zero-plugin(1)>,