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generate_unique_secure_token(length: MINIMUM_TOKEN_LENGTH)

# File activerecord/lib/active_record/secure_token.rb, line 43
def generate_unique_secure_token(length: MINIMUM_TOKEN_LENGTH)
  SecureRandom.base58(length)
end

has_secure_token(attribute = :token, length: MINIMUM_TOKEN_LENGTH)

Example using has_secure_token

# Schema: User(token:string, auth_token:string)
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_secure_token
  has_secure_token :auth_token, length: 36
end

user = User.new
user.save
user.token # => "pX27zsMN2ViQKta1bGfLmVJE"
user.auth_token # => "tU9bLuZseefXQ4yQxQo8wjtBvsAfPc78os6R"
user.regenerate_token # => true
user.regenerate_auth_token # => true

SecureRandom::base58 is used to generate at minimum a 24-character unique token, so collisions are highly unlikely.

Note that it's still possible to generate a race condition in the database in the same way that validates_uniqueness_of can. You're encouraged to add a unique index in the database to deal with this even more unlikely scenario.

# File activerecord/lib/active_record/secure_token.rb, line 32
def has_secure_token(attribute = :token, length: MINIMUM_TOKEN_LENGTH)
  if length < MINIMUM_TOKEN_LENGTH
    raise MinimumLengthError, "Token requires a minimum length of #{MINIMUM_TOKEN_LENGTH} characters."
  end

  # Load securerandom only when has_secure_token is used.
  require "active_support/core_ext/securerandom"
  define_method("regenerate_#{attribute}") { update! attribute => self.class.generate_unique_secure_token(length: length) }
  before_create { send("#{attribute}=", self.class.generate_unique_secure_token(length: length)) unless send("#{attribute}?") }
end