Re: [PATCHES] Patch for UUID datatype (beta)

On Tue, Sep 19, 2006 at 03:35:55PM +0200, Gevik Babakhani wrote:
> > As others have mentioned, using MAC address doesn't remove the
> > possibility of a collision.
> > 
> > Maybe a good compromise that would allow a generator function to go into
> > the backend would be to combine the current time with a random number.
> > That will ensure that you won't get a dupe, so long as your clock never
> > runs backwards.
> 
> I think that is a reasonable solution. I just wonder if there is a cross
> platform way to get the MAC address for all OS we support.

Well... how much OS-specific code do you want? :)

Another (not as good) possibility would be to use the IP address (along
with time and a random number).
-- 
Jim Nasby                                    jimn@enterprisedb.com
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)