Creating Large Random Content Files in Python

Question

I am working on characterizing an SSD drive to determine max TBW / life expectancy.

Currently I am using BASH to generate 500MB files with random (non-zero) content :

dd if=<(openssl enc -aes-128-cbc -pass pass:"$(dd if=/dev/urandom bs=128 count=1 2>/dev/null | base64)" -nosalt < /dev/zero) of=/media/m2_adv3d/abc${stamp1} bs=1MB count=500 iflag=fullblock&

Note : {stamp1} is a time stamp for ensuring unique file names.

I am looking to accomplish the same result in Python but am not finding efficient ways to do this (generate the file quickly).

Looking for suggestions.

Thanks!

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Update

I have been experimenting with the following and seem to have achieved 2 second write; files appear to be random and different :

import os

newfile = open("testfile.001", "a")
newfile.write (os.urandom(500000000))    # generate 500MB random content file
newfile.close ()

A little skeptical that this is truly good enough to stress an SSD. Basically going to infinitely loop this; once drive is full, deleting to oldest file and writing new one, and collecting SMART data every 500 files written to trend the aging.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Dan.

Answer 1

The os.urandom option works best for generating large random files.