MD5 - how do I use this?

[Guest Broc]

I read that it's written beside a .apk in a post so that we can check that the file download is as expected and all is well? I managed to install seb's r5 ROM but skipped the MD5 part as I had no idea what to do. For future download/uploads, will someone kindly explain to me please how I use the MD5.... patiently if you would, as if you were spoon-feeding a baby a breakfast of anchovies & olives. :rolleyes: Thanks.

[Guest spoonium]

MD5 is a hash of a string/file/whatever. It basically takes all the stuff within that "container" (string/file/etc) and generates a unique hash out of it.

For files it is used to determine if the file you've downloaded is identical to the one generated on the authors computer. If only one bit changes, the MD5 hash would change as well, so you can be pretty sure that the download isn't corrupted / wasn't tinkererd with if the MD5 values match (there are ways to duplicate hashes (collisions), but you shouldn't need to worry about that in this context).

To check a file's MD5 value on your computer, you need a dedicated software for it (on Windows at least) - just search google, there are plenty of them but I cannot comment on any of them as I generally don't really bother with it. Only if something doesn't work I dig deeper (but honestly, a simple re-download fixes that most of the time anyway).

Edited November 11, 2010 by spoonium