source: python/trunk/Doc/library/uuid.rst

:mod:`uuid` --- UUID objects according to RFC 4122
==================================================

.. module:: uuid
   :synopsis: UUID objects (universally unique identifiers) according to RFC 4122
.. moduleauthor:: Ka-Ping Yee <ping@zesty.ca>
.. sectionauthor:: George Yoshida <quiver@users.sourceforge.net>


.. versionadded:: 2.5

This module provides immutable :class:`UUID` objects (the :class:`UUID` class)
and the functions :func:`uuid1`, :func:`uuid3`, :func:`uuid4`, :func:`uuid5` for
generating version 1, 3, 4, and 5 UUIDs as specified in :rfc:`4122`.

If all you want is a unique ID, you should probably call :func:`uuid1` or
:func:`uuid4`.  Note that :func:`uuid1` may compromise privacy since it creates
a UUID containing the computer's network address.  :func:`uuid4` creates a
random UUID.


.. class:: UUID([hex[, bytes[, bytes_le[, fields[, int[, version]]]]]])

   Create a UUID from either a string of 32 hexadecimal digits, a string of 16
   bytes as the *bytes* argument, a string of 16 bytes in little-endian order as
   the *bytes_le* argument, a tuple of six integers (32-bit *time_low*, 16-bit
   *time_mid*, 16-bit *time_hi_version*, 8-bit *clock_seq_hi_variant*, 8-bit
   *clock_seq_low*, 48-bit *node*) as the *fields* argument, or a single 128-bit
   integer as the *int* argument.  When a string of hex digits is given, curly
   braces, hyphens, and a URN prefix are all optional.  For example, these
   expressions all yield the same UUID::

      UUID('{12345678-1234-5678-1234-567812345678}')
      UUID('12345678123456781234567812345678')
      UUID('urn:uuid:12345678-1234-5678-1234-567812345678')
      UUID(bytes='\x12\x34\x56\x78'*4)
      UUID(bytes_le='\x78\x56\x34\x12\x34\x12\x78\x56' +
                    '\x12\x34\x56\x78\x12\x34\x56\x78')
      UUID(fields=(0x12345678, 0x1234, 0x5678, 0x12, 0x34, 0x567812345678))
      UUID(int=0x12345678123456781234567812345678)

   Exactly one of *hex*, *bytes*, *bytes_le*, *fields*, or *int* must be given.
   The *version* argument is optional; if given, the resulting UUID will have its
   variant and version number set according to RFC 4122, overriding bits in the
   given *hex*, *bytes*, *bytes_le*, *fields*, or *int*.

:class:`UUID` instances have these read-only attributes:


.. attribute:: UUID.bytes

   The UUID as a 16-byte string (containing the six integer fields in big-endian
   byte order).


.. attribute:: UUID.bytes_le

   The UUID as a 16-byte string (with *time_low*, *time_mid*, and *time_hi_version*
   in little-endian byte order).


.. attribute:: UUID.fields

   A tuple of the six integer fields of the UUID, which are also available as six
   individual attributes and two derived attributes:

   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | Field                        | Meaning                       |
   +==============================+===============================+
   | :attr:`time_low`             | the first 32 bits of the UUID |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`time_mid`             | the next 16 bits of the UUID  |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`time_hi_version`      | the next 16 bits of the UUID  |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`clock_seq_hi_variant` | the next 8 bits of the UUID   |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`clock_seq_low`        | the next 8 bits of the UUID   |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`node`                 | the last 48 bits of the UUID  |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`time`                 | the 60-bit timestamp          |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   | :attr:`clock_seq`            | the 14-bit sequence number    |
   +------------------------------+-------------------------------+


.. attribute:: UUID.hex

   The UUID as a 32-character hexadecimal string.


.. attribute:: UUID.int

   The UUID as a 128-bit integer.


.. attribute:: UUID.urn

   The UUID as a URN as specified in RFC 4122.


.. attribute:: UUID.variant

   The UUID variant, which determines the internal layout of the UUID. This will be
   one of the integer constants :const:`RESERVED_NCS`, :const:`RFC_4122`,
   :const:`RESERVED_MICROSOFT`, or :const:`RESERVED_FUTURE`.


.. attribute:: UUID.version

   The UUID version number (1 through 5, meaningful only when the variant is
   :const:`RFC_4122`).

The :mod:`uuid` module defines the following functions:


.. function:: getnode()

   Get the hardware address as a 48-bit positive integer.  The first time this
   runs, it may launch a separate program, which could be quite slow.  If all
   attempts to obtain the hardware address fail, we choose a random 48-bit number
   with its eighth bit set to 1 as recommended in RFC 4122.  "Hardware address"
   means the MAC address of a network interface, and on a machine with multiple
   network interfaces the MAC address of any one of them may be returned.

.. index:: single: getnode


.. function:: uuid1([node[, clock_seq]])

   Generate a UUID from a host ID, sequence number, and the current time. If *node*
   is not given, :func:`getnode` is used to obtain the hardware address. If
   *clock_seq* is given, it is used as the sequence number; otherwise a random
   14-bit sequence number is chosen.

.. index:: single: uuid1


.. function:: uuid3(namespace, name)

   Generate a UUID based on the MD5 hash of a namespace identifier (which is a
   UUID) and a name (which is a string).

.. index:: single: uuid3


.. function:: uuid4()

   Generate a random UUID.

.. index:: single: uuid4


.. function:: uuid5(namespace, name)

   Generate a UUID based on the SHA-1 hash of a namespace identifier (which is a
   UUID) and a name (which is a string).

.. index:: single: uuid5

The :mod:`uuid` module defines the following namespace identifiers for use with
:func:`uuid3` or :func:`uuid5`.


.. data:: NAMESPACE_DNS

   When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is a fully-qualified domain
   name.


.. data:: NAMESPACE_URL

   When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is a URL.


.. data:: NAMESPACE_OID

   When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is an ISO OID.


.. data:: NAMESPACE_X500

   When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is an X.500 DN in DER or a
   text output format.

The :mod:`uuid` module defines the following constants for the possible values
of the :attr:`variant` attribute:


.. data:: RESERVED_NCS

   Reserved for NCS compatibility.


.. data:: RFC_4122

   Specifies the UUID layout given in :rfc:`4122`.


.. data:: RESERVED_MICROSOFT

   Reserved for Microsoft compatibility.


.. data:: RESERVED_FUTURE

   Reserved for future definition.


.. seealso::

   :rfc:`4122` - A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace
      This specification defines a Uniform Resource Name namespace for UUIDs, the
      internal format of UUIDs, and methods of generating UUIDs.


.. _uuid-example:

Example
-------

Here are some examples of typical usage of the :mod:`uuid` module::

   >>> import uuid

   >>> # make a UUID based on the host ID and current time
   >>> uuid.uuid1()
   UUID('a8098c1a-f86e-11da-bd1a-00112444be1e')

   >>> # make a UUID using an MD5 hash of a namespace UUID and a name
   >>> uuid.uuid3(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, 'python.org')
   UUID('6fa459ea-ee8a-3ca4-894e-db77e160355e')

   >>> # make a random UUID
   >>> uuid.uuid4()
   UUID('16fd2706-8baf-433b-82eb-8c7fada847da')

   >>> # make a UUID using a SHA-1 hash of a namespace UUID and a name
   >>> uuid.uuid5(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, 'python.org')
   UUID('886313e1-3b8a-5372-9b90-0c9aee199e5d')

   >>> # make a UUID from a string of hex digits (braces and hyphens ignored)
   >>> x = uuid.UUID('{00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f}')

   >>> # convert a UUID to a string of hex digits in standard form
   >>> str(x)
   '00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f'

   >>> # get the raw 16 bytes of the UUID
   >>> x.bytes
   '\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x0e\x0f'

   >>> # make a UUID from a 16-byte string
   >>> uuid.UUID(bytes=x.bytes)
   UUID('00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f')