python-fchksum v1.7.1  Copyright 2000-2003 Matthew Mueller <donut AT dakotacom.net>

Install: (requires distutils [0])
1) python setup.py build
2) python setup.py test    (requires pyunit >= 1.4.0 [1], SUBTERFUGUE [2])
3) python setup.py install (or you can skip the install part and use the
environment variable PYTHONPATH or modify sys.path in order to find the module)

[0] http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/ (included in python >= 1.6)
[1] http://pyunit.sourceforge.net/            (included in python >= 2.1)
[2] http://subterfugue.org/             (tests can be run without SUBTERFUGUE,
                                         if you ignore the resultant failures)

Setup flags:
--zlib-prefix=/somedir
   Try to find zlib in /somedir/include and /somedir/lib
--zlib=X( Y Z)
   Alternate library(libraries) to link instead of -lz
--lflags=a b c
   List of extra args to use during link stage


DESCRIPTION
    This module provides quick and easy functions to find checksums of files.
    It supports md5, crc32, cksum, bsd-style sum, and sysv-style sum.
    The advantage of using fchksum over the python md5 and zlib(.crc32)
    modules is both ease of use and speed.  You only need to tell it the
    filename and the actual work is done by C code.  Compared to the
    implementing a read loop in python with the standard python modules,
    fchksum is up to 2.0x faster in md5 and 1.1x faster in crc32.
    
    All checksum functions take a filename as a string, and optional callback
    function, and callback delay (in seconds), and return a tuple (checksum,
    size).  An empty string may be substituted for filename to read from
    stdin.  The returned size is always a python Long, and the checksum
    return type varies depending on the function.

FUNCTIONS
    fbsdsum(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the bsd-style sum as an int.
    
    fbsdsumt(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the bsd-style sum as a 5 char dec st
ring.
    
    fcksum(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the cksum as an int.
    
    fcksumd(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the cksum as a 4 byte string.
    
    fcksumt(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the cksum as a dec string.
    
    fcrc32(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the crc32 as an int.
    
    fcrc32d(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the crc32 as a 4 byte string.
    
    fcrc32t(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the crc32 as a 8 char hex string.
    
    fmd5(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the md5sum as a 16 byte string.
    
    fmd5t(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the md5sum as a 32 char hex string.
    
    fsysvsum(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the sysv-style sum as an int.
    
    fsysvsumt(...)
        filename[, callback, cbdelay] -> checksum, size. Return the sysv-style sum as a dec string.
    
    version(...)
        Return the interface version number.
        
        v1.0-1.1 had no version() function
        v1.2 returned 2
        v1.3-1.6 returns 3
        v1.7 returns 4


Copying:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version. 
See the file 'COPYING' for more information.

I would appreciate it if you make modifications if you would send them
to me for possible inclusion in the main source.

You can get the latest version at 
http://www.dakotacom.net/~donut/programs/