SETSTATE(3P)

💖 SETSTATE(3P) — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is a page from the POSIX Programmer's Manual, and we're talking about setstate. sit down, hydrate, let's go 🫶

🚨 PROLOG 🚨

okay so real talk first: this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. the Linux implementation of this interface may differ — so like, consult the corresponding Linux manual page for the actual details of Linux behavior. OR the interface might just not be implemented on Linux at all. vibe check: check your platform first, no cap. 💀

✨ NAME ✨

setstate — switch pseudo-random number generator state arrays. it's giving "changing the channel on your randomness TV" 📺

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

#include <stdlib.h>

char *setstate(char *state);

that's it. that's the whole signature. short and iconic. 👑

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

bestie, this one's a reroute — refer to initstate(). that's where the lore lives. setstate is basically the little sister function that says "go ask initstate, she knows everything." 💅

📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

okay legal moment, stay with me, this part is verbatim because lawyers are not a vibe to paraphrase:

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

and also:

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

so if something looks cursed, it's probably a conversion glitch, not the actual standard. report it, don't just subtweet it. 🙈

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

nope, there isn't one on this page — the whole DESCRIPTION just points you at initstate(). that's your next stop, bestie. 🦋

and that's the whole page!! footer tea for the record keepers: this one's from IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and the manual it lives in is the POSIX Programmer's Manual (that's the 3P in SETSTATE(3P) — now you know, iykyk 💜). go read initstate() fr fr. mwah. 🎀✨