I think, in order to calculate the MD5 hash, we have to read the entire file. But if we're going to read the entire file, then why not just compare every byte? It would be less work.

That's true, and see File::Compare. Hashes have the advantage that they can be cached and written to a file for later comparisons; personally I always usually use hashes (although typically one of the bigger SHA variants).

In reply to Re^3: Website for small perl scripts by haukex
in thread Website for small perl scripts by harangzsolt33

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