Getting a unique id from a unix-like system

Question

I want to get from any Unix-like system (if this is possible) a unique id that will be persistent every time my application runs in the same machine. If it is possible, I wa

Answer 1

Most unix-like machines have a random number generator accessible through /dev/random. You will need something like a MAC address and a time to give a genuine uniqueness to the GUID generator (this is what the GUID generator on Windows does). On top of this, getting something from /dev/random will get you a reasonably good GUID type construct. In practice, the UUID libraries do this sort of thing behind the scenes.

If you just need one number per machine, than a MAC address will probably be sufficient. These are administered by a central body and one can reasonably assume that no two MAC addresses will be the same. However, if you are trying to use this to tie a software installation to a MAC address be aware that some components have programmable MAC addresses or programmable components of the MAC address. Unix-like Operating systems, particularly open-source ones tend not to have hard-wired serial numbers. This approach may also cause issues with running multiple instances of the software in VM's.

One option might be a USB dongle, which can be obtained from several manufacturers. Another option might be a license server, where the unique code is supplied to the server. Again, several canned solutions for this are available from different sources.