Checksum via FTP???

[Richard Gaskin]

Roger Eller wrote:

 > ...so for protecting the initial md5digest, I might store it in
 > a database rather than a file.  That could possibly make retrieval
 > of that code more efficient, and also add a protective layer.

If someone has sufficient access to modify files on your server, that 
may include your database as well.

Databases are handy for working with very large data stores, esp. where 
you need relationality but for simple things like a checksum value for a 
file, Mark Weider's suggestion is probably the simplest and most 
efficient, to just store a checksum file with the actual file,

With a database your client talks to Apache, Apache loads your CGI, your 
CGI connects to the DB, then it submits the request through the the 
driver where the DB traverses its hash table to find the record, returns 
that data back through the driver interface to your CGI, then your CGI 
hands it back to Apache for delivery to the client.

As a file, Apache just gets the file itself and returns its data to the 
client.

On some file systems you may be able to measure a performance difference 
if your directory has more than 32l files in it, but even then it's 
probably not as much as the overhead of connecting to a DB.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
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