Most implementations of "srand" take an integer and will silently truncate decimal numbers. This means "srand(42)" will usually produce the same results as "srand(42.1)". To be safe, always pass "srand" an integer.
most strings will evaluate to 0 ! 
  DB<116> srand 0
 => 1

  DB<117> rand
 => "0.17082803610629"

  DB<118> rand
 => "0.749901980484964"

  DB<119> srand hostname
 => 1

  DB<120> rand
 => "0.17082803610629"

  DB<121> rand
 => "0.749901980484964"

  DB<122> 0+ hostname
 => 0

[download]
You need a checksum to produce a (pseudo) unique integer. You could try

$seed += ord($_) for split //, hostname

But whats wrong with the IP?

Cheers Rolf

In reply to Re^2: How do I make a random shuffle deterministic? by LanX
in thread How do I make a random shuffle deterministic? by Anonymous Monk

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