[Pythonmac-SIG] Replacement for getpid() in macpython?

[Jack Jansen]

On zaterdag, maa 29, 2003, at 07:18 Europe/Amsterdam, Peter Ahlstrom 
wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I just barely got macpython and am trying to get a particular popular 
> python program to work in mac os 9. If I modify two lines, things go 
> okay, but I'm looking for a better solution.
>
> the lines are
>
> from os import getpid, path, makedirs
>
> and
>
> myid = (chr(0) * 12) + sha(repr(time()) + ' ' + 
> str(getpid())).digest()[-8:]

You could leave it out, or pick some other "easy" bit of information. 
You could use the
host name of your machine, socket.gethostname(), or the number of ticks 
(1/60th of a second)
since boot, MacOS.GetTicks(). Either of these make the chance that you 
get a collision
probably smaller than the chance that two digests are equal (2**-32, in 
your case, it seems).

Still, even when you use "0" for getpid() you will only get a collision 
if two Mac users
create an ID at exactly the same time. Whether this chance is bigger or 
smaller than 2**-32
is left as an exercise to the reader, but I know I would be happy 
enough with it:-)
--
- Jack Jansen        <Jack.Jansen@oratrix.com>        
http://www.cwi.nl/~jack -
- If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman -