This is the shell script we're using at the moment:

DVD=$1

B=`/usr/sbin/mount | grep "$DVD on`

if [ "$B" = "" ]
then
    echo "DVD is not mounted. Please mount and then try again"
    exit
fi

nohup find /dvd/$DVD -type f -exec cksum {} \; >$CHECKDIR/cksum.$DVD.d
+vd &
[download]

I knew that perl had some features to do this with Digest::MD5 (it is used in MP3::Napster, which I use a lot). I also figured I could use File::Find to recursively traverse the directories like the find (1) command above is doing. My hope was that the implementation of the checksum in cksum was slower than the checksumming in Digest::MD5, and also that the find in File::Find was quicker than that in find (1).

So I havent benchmarked it yet, but here is the code I intend to use to replace the code we're using:

#!/usr01/aja96/perl/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;
use Carp;
use File::Find;
use Digest::MD5 qw{ md5_hex };
use File::Slurp;

my $dir = shift || '.';
my $debug = '';
    
my @cksums;

sub wanted {
  my $file = $_;
  return if (-d $file);
  carp "cksumming $_ ($file)\n" if $debug;
  my $noodle = read_file( $file )
    or croak "$file unreadable: $!\n";
  my %file = (
    name => $file,
    cksum => md5_hex( $noodle ),
  );
  push @cksums, \%file;
  carp "$file checksummed\n" if $debug;
}

find( { wanted => \&wanted, follow_fast => 1 }, $dir );

print scalar @cksums, " checksums gleaned\n";
[download]

<!- tilly need not reply. -> brother dep

--
Laziness, Impatience, Hubris, and Generosity.