livefrom2006
Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Oct. 2006 |
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Posted: Oct. 14 2006,22:10 |
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hi,
have been reading the documentation for the md5sum program, and have a question regarding the checking option - ie the
md5sum -c file_of_items_to_check
form of the command. The documentation states that the list file contains a line for each file to be checked consisting of the following three parts:
1. the md5 checksum 2. a file type indicator 3. the file to check, with optional path name.
what I am unsure about is item 2. It is stated that binary files should contain a "*" in this location while text files should contain " " - ie a blank space.
if this is the case, then how come the .md5.txt files for the dsl .iso files contain a " " in this position - I would have thought that these files would be considered as a binary file, and thus should have a "*" in this position.
I am assuming that the difference has something to do with the way that white space and control chacters are treated - I have tried searching on the program name, but have not had and success. If anyone could clarify this matter, it would be much appreciated.
on a related subject, have been trying to check a knoppix cd using the md5sum program, and the supplied md5sums list. have used the following procedure:
dsl toram 2 (boot options) mount /mnt/cdrom cd /mnt/cdrom md5sum -c KNOPPIX/md5sum
the prompt re-appears in about 2 seconds - much to quick for a check on knoppix. so tried using the "warn" feature - ie
md5sum -c -w KNOPPIX/md5sum
the results in the message "md5sum: Invalid Format" being printed numerous times down the screen. have checked the file and all the entries seem fine. as an example, the first line of the file is as follows:
f3086b686d99c6681718d1a49faab5bb *autorun.bat
while neither of these items is major, it has the potential to cause problems if a corrupted download is not spotted. I also find that getting details straight at the start can prevent problems further down the line.
as you may have guessed from the above comment, and my username I am new to linux - but enjoying the learning process!.
dsl is a great distro, and one of the few that does not suffer from "kitchen sink" syndrome!.
regards, L.F.2006.
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