Re: Bug#366780: ITP: summain -- compute and verify file checksums
Hello Lars, On Thu, 2006-05-11 at 03:35 +0300, Lars Wirzenius wrote: > A checksum is a number that identifies the contents of a file: if the > contents change, so does the checksum. If you create a checksum before > you burn a CD, when you know the files are correct, you can easily > check the CD at any time: just compute the checksum again and see if > they have changed. > . > summain computes and checks files against such checksums. It supports > both MD5 and SHA-1 checksums, using formats compatible with the md5sum > and sha1sum utilities, both for reading and writing. In addition, it > can read and verify checksums from Debian .dsc, .changes, and Sources > files. > > (This ITP is for a program not quite released yet. I hope to get some > feedback on the description. The release and package upload to NEW will > happen once Debcamp6 Internet access gets more usable, or when I return > home.) I like the description, but I'd switch the two paragraphs. People reading the details for this package would in most cases already be familiar with what a checksum is. It's good to explain it for those not yet "in the know", but it might be better to demote that information. Thijs signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: Bug#366780: ITP: summain -- compute and verify file checksums
Lars Wirzenius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > A checksum is a number that identifies the contents of a file: if the > contents change, so does the checksum. If you create a checksum before > you burn a CD, when you know the files are correct, you can easily > check the CD at any time: just compute the checksum again and see if > they have changed. > . > summain computes and checks files against such checksums. It supports > both MD5 and SHA-1 checksums, using formats compatible with the md5sum > and sha1sum utilities, both for reading and writing. In addition, it > can read and verify checksums from Debian .dsc, .changes, and Sources > files. It's not clear to me, from the description, what the program does that the md5sum and sha1sum utilities do not. -- "If a person keeps faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he can count on waking up some morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation." --William James -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Bug#366780: ITP: summain -- compute and verify file checksums
to, 2006-05-11 kello 07:13 -0700, Ben Pfaff kirjoitti: > It's not clear to me, from the description, what the program does > that the md5sum and sha1sum utilities do not. It handles .dsc, .changes, and Sources files. But I also forgot to mention the main reason I wrote it: it gives progress feedback and has some convenience features. An updated suggestion for a long description, which also incorporates Thijs's suggestion to reorder paragraphs: summain computes and checks files against such checksums. It supports both MD5 and SHA-1 checksums, using formats compatible with the md5sum and sha1sum utilities, both for reading and writing. In addition, it can read and verify checksums from Debian .dsc, .changes, and Sources files. . Apart from supporting more file formats, summain differs from the traditional md5sum and sha1sum utilities by providing progress reporting, and via convenience features such as automatic recursion into directories, and looking up files relative to the location of the checksum file, rather than the current working directory. . A checksum is a number that identifies the contents of a file: if the contents change, so does the checksum. If you create a checksum before you burn a CD, when you know the files are correct, you can easily check the CD at any time: just compute the checksum again and see if they have changed. I hope this is better. -- RFC 1437 - yet another MIME specification Microsoft ignores -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Bug#366780: ITP: summain -- compute and verify file checksums
Hi, On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 12:41:54AM +0300, Lars Wirzenius wrote: > to, 2006-05-11 kello 07:13 -0700, Ben Pfaff kirjoitti: > > It's not clear to me, from the description, what the program does > > that the md5sum and sha1sum utilities do not. How does it compare to md5deep (which also comes with sha1deep, sha256deep, tigerdeep, whirlpooldeep)? http://md5deep.sourceforge.net/ Quote from the website: md5deep is a cross-platform set of programs to compute MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 Tiger, or Whirlpool message digests on an arbitrary number of files. The programs run on Windows, Linux, Cygwin, *BSD, OS X, Solaris, and should run on most other platforms. md5deep is similar to the md5sum program found in the GNU Coreutils package, but has the following additional features: * Recursive operation - md5deep is able to recursive examine an entire directory tree. That is, compute the MD5 for every file in a directory and for every file in every subdirectory. * Time estimation - md5deep can produce a time estimate when it's processing very large files. * Comparison mode - md5deep can accept a list of known hashes and compare them to a set of input files. The program can display either those input files that match the list of known hashes or those that do not match. Hashes sets can be drawn from the National Software Reference Library, iLook Investigator, Hashkeeper, or md5sum, and other generic hash generating programs. Users are welcome to add functionality to read other formats too! * Piecewise hashing - Hash input files in arbitrary blocks * File type mode - md5deep can process only files of a certain type, such as regular files, block devices, etc. Uwe. -- Uwe Hermann http://www.hermann-uwe.de http://www.it-services-uh.de | http://www.crazy-hacks.org http://www.holsham-traders.de | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Bug#366780: ITP: summain -- compute and verify file checksums
On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 12:41:54AM +0300, Lars Wirzenius wrote: > Apart from supporting more file formats, summain differs from the > traditional md5sum and sha1sum utilities by providing progress > reporting, and via convenience features such as automatic recursion > into directories, and looking up files relative to the location of the > checksum file, rather than the current working directory. Have you looked at the "cfv" program, which is already packaged for Debian? There are a huge number of checksum programs out there; it would be nice if there could be fewer with a greater concentration of features - Ted -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
