I am trying to generate a random number in Bash, but it looks like

Question

Editorial Team

Asked: June 17, 20262026-06-17T01:27:08+00:00 2026-06-17T01:27:08+00:00

I am trying to generate a random number in Bash, but it looks like $RANDOM is always returning zero.

I am using the following code

#!/bin/sh
#!/bin/bash

testing=$((RANDOM))
echo $testing
VAR=$((RANDOM%200+100))
echo $VAR

Result :

0
100

Anybody any idea how to fix this?

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Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-06-17T01:27:09+00:00

Editorial Team

Remove the #!/bin/sh line from your script. $RANDOM works in bash, not in sh.

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