md5 consistent across platforms/Python versions?

[Gary Robinson]

Hi,

I know that hash functions are often platform-dependent for efficiency
reasons. From what I understand, this includes Python's hash(), which I have
read is not guaranteed to return the same result across platforms or even
across Python versions.

Can someone tell me whether an MD5 hash using Python's MD5 library IS
guaranteed to return the same results for the same input string, across
platforms and Python versions?

My limited understanding of how MD5 is normally used would seem to indicate
that this must be the case, but it would be helpful for me to have
confirmation, since my knowledge in this area is very limited.

--Gary

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Gary Robinson
CEO
Transpose, LLC
grobinson at transpose.com
207-942-3463
http://www.transpose.com
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101454