[tz] question about SHA512 when using tzdata

[Brian Inglis]

On 2015-10-16 13:11, Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 10/16/2015 02:07 AM, Ian Abbott wrote:
>>> sha512sum tzcode2015g.tar.gz tzdata2015g.tar.gz
>>
>> Would it be worth using the -b option to treat the input as a binary file?
>
> I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand it is more portable; but on the other, that "*" tends to confuse people. Perhaps we should try it for a release or two and see what happens.

The sha2 docs say binary is the default (unless reading stdin from a tty, which seems an uncommon use case) and the "*" prefix is generated automatically by current sha2 releases whenever the file is treated as binary, so the -b option should now be redundant, as the the "*" prefix should be generated for most uses. It is unfortunate that the "*" is prefixed to the filename, a space between would make its role as a flag more obvious and less confusing.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis