From the course: Linux Tips

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File checksums

File checksums - Linux Tutorial

From the course: Linux Tips

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File checksums

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- [Instructor] A file is just a big collection of bits and when we use a file like a Linux installer ISO or really anything else, it's good to know that the file contains all the bits we expect it to. Files can be altered either by someone doing something sneaky like a download site serving up a file that's been modified to include malware, or simply by random errors that occur on storage or when being transmitted through a network. Networking protocols and storage devices try to maintain integrity, but even a Linux installer ISO has billions of bits, and even if one gets flipped, things may not work correctly. Rather than comparing a file bit by bit to the original file, we can use a checksum to compare file contents. A checksum is the result of a hashing function, an algorithm that comes up with an repeatable answer given a particular input. A hash function treats the file as one long string of data and it computes the checksum based on what the file contains. If the contents of the…

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