dchoose

Choose an item from a file or input stream using drand

Installation

npm install -g dchoose

Usage

Select some random entries from a file:

cat /some/path/to/file | dchoose --count 2

Or alternatively:

dchoose --count 2 --file /some/path/to/file

Flip a coin:

echo -e "heads\ntails" | dchoose

Parameters

• -c, --count

The number of items to select from the input. Default is 1.

• -u, --drand-url

The drand URL to use. The default is quicknet (i.e. https://api.drand.sh/52db9ba70e0cc0f6eaf7803dd07447a1f5477735fd3f661792ba94600c84e971)

• -f, --file

The file to select items from. Each line is considered an entry. Alternatively, you can pass a file via stdin by using e.g. cat

• -r, --randomness

Custom randomness with which to draw from instead of using the next drand round. Must be in hex format. This can be useful for verifying past draws or repeatability.

• -v, --verbose

A verbose output format for when you want to know a little more about the draw, or want to repeat it.

The output format (prettified) looks something like:

{
  "time": 1699439820012,
  "round": 123456,
  "randomness": "f73220684f2a171ffb00ec3b21983e01738bc863e26f374b0a76081416eebda8",
  "totalCount": 2,
  "winners": ["heads"]
}