bug#9531: md5sum: confusing documentation for file type output

[Rüdiger Meier]

On Saturday 17 September 2011, Rüdiger Meier wrote:
> On Saturday 17 September 2011, Eric Blake wrote:
> > I hate the way md5sum currently works.  What we _should_ have done
> > is make binary normal,
> > [...]
> > I've had ideas of how to change things for several years now, but
> > [...]
>
> Yes, it's a real dilemma.

Just another point.

Of course usually we all are strongly against changing any default 
behavior but in this case the default is that bad ...

Imagine a file server which publishes md5sums for the users to check 
their downloads. Doesn't matter which mode the file server was using 
when calculating md5 - the user doesn't know it. No way to validate it 
reliable. Even worse if file server was using O_TEXT then a unix user 
is not even able to validate it due to the missing --textmode.

I would say any serious admin is using --binary always now if he has to 
do with systems where it matters. 

So in this case I would simply break with the good manners and 
make --binary the default.


cu,
Rudi