Command line GUID for Unix and Windows?

Question

Is there a command line tool for Unix and Windows that uses the same algorithm to create GUIDs for both platforms?

Maddie

in windows you can do this with powershell like so: [guid]::newguid() – Caffey

Answer 1

'e2fsprogs' project maintain uuidgen utility.

http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/

It is already available on any Linux/BSD* distros.

For Windows I recommend install Cygwin, 'e2fsprogs' package available from there!

As report j4y this utility is available under MAC OS.

Just run:

  $ uuidgen -r  # random based UUID/GUID
  $ uuidgen -t  # time based UUID/GUID

Conall

Cygwin package is "util-linux" Package Listing The command will also work without parameters in cygwin. – Snobbish

uuidgen is now part of util-linux. – Alcot

Answer 2

I don't know if there is a command line tool available, but you could simply write one in C# (it should run with Mono):

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(System.Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
    }
}

You can easily modify the program to change formatting of the GUID, copy it to the clipboard or whatever fits your need.

Brightwork

Well I need to be sure they use the same algorithm to generate the GUID, and since Mono is not officially MS, I don't know if they use the same algorithm, do you have any specs about this? – Maddie

Mono probably might use a different implementation but you could run the tool using Mono on both Windows and Unix/Linux. Just because I'm curious: Why do you need the same algorithm on both platforms? The GUID will still be unique because one field in the GUID specifies the algorithm used. – Brightwork

The whole idea of a GUID is that it's globally unique if the algorithm and random number generator are up to par. I think you'd be safe with different algorithms generating GUIDs. – Copal

Wedge got it right. The GUID includes a version marker (which specifies which algorithm is used). This ensures that no two GUIDs with different algorithm can ever be the same. And if the algorithm matches, then it's already tailored to ensure that no two GUIDs are the same. – Pya

Answer 3

Something useful to know:

The byte order of Guid.ToByteArray() in C# and the SQL Server GUID type is:

        { 3, 2, 1, 0, 5, 4, 7, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 };

An Oracle GUID created using SYS_GUID() and stored as RAW[16] is ordered:

        { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 };

You may find this online GUID converter handy. I'm not sure if the source is available for your own use, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out.

Kirsten

Shouldn't the string representation be the same, regardless of underlying byte order? – Pya

Yes, but this is just a handy tip offered in case you ever have to deal with a GUID in byte order. – Kirsten

Answer 4

In Windows XP, you can use the following in the command window.

uuidgen.exe

Culverin

uuidgen isn't available out of the box in Windows; it's part of the Platform SDK / Windows SDK. – Estrous

not in windows 10 – Wexler

After installing visualstudio2019buildtools with Chocolatey, I have ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.22000.0\x64\uuidgen.exe". This creates a new random (uuidv4) on every invocation and writes it to stdout. – Besotted

Answer 5

If you're on a system which already has python, you can simply run this on the command line:

python -c "import uuid; print(uuid.uuid4())"

(Python comes pre-installed on many Linux distributions, as well as on MacOS)

Executioner

Answer 6

There are tons of online apps to do it.

If you are using PHP, you can use the uniqid function.

I found a pure Java program to do it at http://jug.safehaus.org/. That should work anywhere you can install Java.

Mendelevium