hashes of files

[maartenfabre]

i dunno where to put this, but since it would apply to all mods, all ask it inhere
is it possible to add hashes to the files you put out for DL, like md5- or sha1sums
now im never sure wether my Download is correct, and i'v had a failed download a few times and installed the mod then. wich isnt too much fun
having to reinstall RTW again for a failed download. giving the hashes of the files would help me out here

[Lusted]

Well what exactly would be needed to do to add the hashes to files? Does it change the extension? I know what you mean by hashes, im a computing student, but most people do not, probably why hashing isn't used on the downloads.

[maartenfabre]

a hash is a string of caracters. for a md5sum or sha1sum you let a program run over the contents of the file, and it gives you the sum for the file. this sume is the hash. if the files contents gets changed, the hash will differ, so the test will fail. but the sum doesnt change the contents or name of the file in any way. id would liik like this

<link to the file>
Sha1sum cdeb3303f8c8a1fc521cd08948d727560eba488d

so when my download is finished i let the summingprogramn examine the file and compare the sum i get from the downloaded file with the sum that the developers provided, if the sums dont match this means something changed the file, probably a corrupt download

a possible program to make/verify the hashes is this program http://www.karenware.com/powertools/pthasher.asp

more info on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5
http://community.ofset.org/wiki/HowTo_Verify_a_MD5_sum