SHA question

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 01:12:28PM +0000, Dermot wrote:

> I am using it in a perl class but if I could system(`fdupes`) that
> might be preferable. I'll try building the sources and see what
> happens. Failing that I'll have to fallback to slurping and SHA or
> MD5.

Other hashing algorithms exist and are faster but more prone to
inadvertant collisions.  If you've got a lot of data to compare, I'd
use one of them (eg one of the variations on a CRC) and then only
bring out the big SHA guns when that finds a collision.  

-- 
David Cantrell | even more awesome than a panda-fur coat

         Nuke a disabled unborn gay baby whale for JESUS!