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.
