[Tutor] Corrupt files

[Danny Yoo]

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, [iso-8859-1] Øyvind wrote:

> Is there some function/modulte that checks a files integrity wheter or
> not the file is corrupt or not?

Hello!

A general technique that people have used before is to provide file
"checksums" of large files.  These checksums can be used to verify that
the file passed through fine over the wire.

As a concrete example, the large Python 2.41 installer file is paired with
a "md5" checksum, listed below under "Files, MD5 checksums, signatures,
and sizes:" at the bottom of:

    http://www.python.org/2.4.1/

So the idea is to take the downloaded file, run the standard 'md5sum'
checksum program, and see that the checksums match the published one.
(If you don't have this utility: http://www.python.org/2.4.1/md5sum.py)
If the checksums don't match up, there's definitely file corruption.


Hope this helps!