Brief MD5 tutorial

If TeraBytes of non-redundant data are stored I consider it to be necessary to verify that not any single bit gets wrong.

This can easily be verified using md5sum. Here is a brief description of how you can create MD5 hashes of your files and how you can check later whether any modification, e.g., a bit flip has happend.

Creating MD5 hashes

The MD5 hashes of all files that are in the current directory including all subdirectories can be created on a Linux system via md5sum `find . | sort` >filename.txt

The file filename.txt can be edited afterwards via any text editor. For instance, the MD5 hashes of some files can be removed if one does not want to have the MD5 hashes of the corresponding files.

Checking whether files conform with their MD5 hashes

md5sum --check filename.txt reports whether and which files agree with the MD5 hashes of the file filename.txt

Brief MD5 tutorial

Creating MD5 hashes

Checking whether files conform with their MD5 hashes

Further reading