What is the best way to programmatically generate a GUID or UUID in C++ without relying on a platform-specific tool? I am trying to make unique identifiers for objects in a simulation, but can't rely on Microsoft's implementation as the project is cross-platform.
Notes:
If you can afford to use Boost, then there is a UUID library that should do the trick. It's very straightforward to use - check the documentation and this answer.
on linux: man uuid
on win: check out for UUID structure and UuidCreate function in msdn
[edit] the function would appear like this
extern "C"
{
#ifdef WIN32
#include <Rpc.h>
#else
#include <uuid/uuid.h>
#endif
}
std::string newUUID()
{
#ifdef WIN32
UUID uuid;
UuidCreate ( &uuid );
unsigned char * str;
UuidToStringA ( &uuid, &str );
std::string s( ( char* ) str );
RpcStringFreeA ( &str );
#else
uuid_t uuid;
uuid_generate_random ( uuid );
char s[37];
uuid_unparse ( uuid, s );
#endif
return s;
}