NAME
    mcookie - generate magic cookies for xauth

SYNOPSIS
    mcookie [-v] [-f filename ]

DESCRIPTION
    mcookie generates a 128-bit random hexadecimal number for use with the
    X authority system. Typical usage:
    xauth add :0 . `mcookie`

    The "random" number generated is actually the output of the MD5 message
    digest fed with various piece of random information: the current time,
    the process id, the parent process id, the contents of an input file
    (if -f is specified), and several bytes of information from the first
    of the following devices which is present: /dev/random,  /dev/urandom,
    files in /proc, /dev/audio.

BUGS
    The entropy in  the generated  128-bit is probably quite small (and,
    therefore, vulnerable to attack) unless a non-pseudorandom number gen-
    erator is used (e.g., /dev/random under Linux).

    It is assumed that none of the devices opened will block.

FILES
    /dev/random
    /dev/urandom
    /dev/audio
    /proc/stat
    /proc/loadavg

SEE ALSO
    X(1), xauth(1),md5sum(1)