> > However, what if libgeda stored a cryptographic signature/hash of > > the symbol file contents along with the filename in the schematics? > > The signature can be something along the lines of an md5sum string (maybe > > not so long, but long to uniquely identify the contents). When a symbol > > is loaded from disk, the signatures are compared and if they don't match, > > a warning is issued.
[ . . . . edit . . . .] > It sounds like a good idea. > > * Notifies the user when a symbol in a design has changed. > * Does not break existing designs. > * Works with the exsiting symbol library structure. Yeah, I like it too. I prefer it over embedding library info into the schematic. My only question is: Can the mechanism be generalized usefully? That is, are there other things done in gEDA which would benefit from performing an MD5 type sum to validate a file read-in? Offhand, I couldn't think of anything, but others may have a smart idea. Stuart
