Getting a random number in bash

This script generates a bounded random number:

#!/bin/bash

# Generate a random number. Copyright (c) Michael Still 2002

# Released under the terms of the GNU GPL

#

# (Is it possible to copyright a single line of code?)
# To quote from the rand manpage as to why we bound the random number this way:

#

#       In Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing

#       (William  H.  Press, Brian P. Flannery, Saul A. Teukolsky,

#       William T.  Vetterling;  New  York:  Cambridge  University

#       Press, 1992 (2nd ed., p. 277)), the following comments are

#       made:

#              “If you want to generate a random integer between 1

#              and 10, you should always do it by using high-order

#              bits, as in

#

#                     j=1+(int) (10.0*rand()/(RAND_MAX+1.0));

#

#              and never by anything resembling

#

#                     j=1+(rand() % 10);

#

#              (which uses lower-order bits).”
# To seed the random number generator, set RANDOM to a value… We can see

# that the bash code (2.05a in this case) already does some seeding for us…

#

# brand ()

# {

#  rseed = rseed * 1103515245 + 12345;

#  return ((unsigned int)((rseed >> 16) & 32767));       /* was % 32768 */

# }

#

# Here I have an example using the current time, which wont work well with

# multiple calls per second

#RANDOM=`date | tr -d “:” | cut -f 4 -d ” “`
# These variables just make the equation easier to read, and are not needed

LOBOUND=1

HIBOUND=10

RANDMAX=32767

BINUMBER=$(( $LOBOUND + ($HIBOUND * $RANDOM) / ($RANDMAX + 1) ))
echo $BINUMBER