File Hash is a utility application that can calculate and verify a variety of hash codes (one at a time) for a user-specified file. In calculation mode, the user specifies the file and the hash type, and the program spits out a character string that represents the file. In verification mode, the user specifies the file, the hash type, and the hash code, and the program determines whether the code matches up to the combination of file and hash type.
Verification mode is quite useful for those looking to verify the integrity of downloaded files, a common use for file hashes, because it automatically performs the character-by-character checking that is otherwise necessarily manual for simple generators. Most of the time the hash for an incorrect file will be obviously different from the goal hash such that a detailed check is not necessary. But not always. Even if it looks like a match, one cannot know that without checking each character.
Another nifty feature of verification mode is a simple check of character length. It would be useful to have a check that the characters provided are also valid for the hash type, but the check of length is mostly sufficient to ensure that a user doesn't specify the wrong type by mistake.
Sam's Protip: From personal experience, hash codes can show up in unexpected places, so it's always useful to have an app like this around.
v1.0 [Oct 25, 2012]
- I‘ve implemented a better handling of type errors.
