Re: md5sums
On 30 Nov 1998, Ben Gertzfield wrote:
> >>>>> "Jason" == Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@ualberta.ca> writes:
>
> Joey> What do people here think about changing policy to
> Joey> reccommend that packages contain a md5sums file? The md5sums
> Joey> files have been around for over a year now, there is a well
> Joey> defined file format, tools to use it and generate it. The
> Joey> big reason to add it to policy is to make the tools that use
> Joey> it (debsums, mainly) more useful, so they can begin to work
> Joey> on all packages.
>
> Jason> I honestly never understood the point. dpkg should be able
> Jason> to generate such a file when it extracts the package,
> Jason> including it in the package is just a brutal hack.
>
> I believe this has been discussed before, and the general consensus
> was that dpkg is slow enough already as it is; generating md5sums on
> the fly, while it would be a great thing to have as an option,
> probably isn't good for everyone all the time, as some people run
> Debian on extremely slow processors, down to even a 68030 or a 386.
Optional perhaps? md5 hashing chews up a minor amount of time compared to
the actuall disk io, especially when you do it as the data is flowing into
the file you are writing.
Putting it in dpkg means that automagically evey package suddenly has
valid md5sum files.
> Anyone have "Debian on a super-slow machine" stories they care to
> share? ;) My slowest was a 386 DX/40.
I booted linux on a embedded intel 386-33 without a coprocessor :> Fun
Fun.
Jason
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