Re: RFE: hash-type in sum utils

[Pádraig Brady]

On 08/22/2012 03:00 PM, Ondrej Oprala wrote:
> Hi, I haven't heard from this thread since I posted the last patch,
> are there still things to correct or should I consider it closed?

The --tag description in the texinfo is a bit sparse.  It says:

"If the file is not binary, put a leading whitespace before the algorithm's 
name."

More accurately it could say:

"When operating in @option{--text} mode, put a leading space before the 
algorithm's name.
On @option{--text} mode significant systems, this enables compatibility with 
existing
BSD (binary) checksums, while also allowing operating in @option{--text} mode".

It's worth considering though, do we want to support --text mode
at all with --tag?  I.E. we could avoid the default leading space,
and have --tag imply --binary and be mutually exclusive with --text?

On the other hand, having distinguished text/binary modes,
does allow you to portably verify arbitrary terminal input
in a concise way like:

  md5sum -c <(echo ' MD5 (-) = c0710d6b4f15dfa88f600b0e6b624077') &&
    echo "input matched"

The tag is a bit redundant in this use case though since
an explicit util would be used.

I'm 60:40 for having --tag imply --binary given the above.

cheers,
Pádraig.