Subject: Re: Seed for RNG - msg#00038

You can just set up your program to check if the environment variable GSL_RNG_SEED has been set, and if not, change the value of gsl_rng_default_seed based on the output of the time() function.

ex (put this after the call to gsl_rng_env_setup()):
if (!getenv("GSL_RNG_SEED")) gsl_rng_default_seed = time(0);

You'll also need to #include <stdlib.h>, if you haven't already, for the getenv() function.

Alternatively, you can just call gsl_rng_set(r, time(0)) after you allocate your generator. Checking the environment variable's probably the better route, though -- it will allow your user to override using time() to seed the generator.

You can also do the same trick to change the default generator you're using.
ex:
if (!getenv("GSL_RNG_TYPE")) gsl_rng_default = gsl_rng_taus;

-Daniel

Johan van der Walt wrote:
I got my little code going for generating random numbers using the GSL routines. Works fine. I now want to use a different seed every time I run the code. But I don't want to enter a new seed on the command line like this
$ GSL_RNG_TYPE="taus" GSL_RNG_SEED=123 ./a.out
every time I run the code.

How can I set the seed in the code?

Johan





_______________________________________________
Help-gsl mailing list
Help-gsl@xxxxxxx
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gsl