Why? Taking the ordinate doesn't make the file name any more unique than not taking it. If you want safety, you would be better off using Data::UUID, which, as the docs say, will generate a UUID that "…is 128 bits long, and is guaranteed to be different from all other UUIDs/GUIDs generated until 3400 CE."

Granted, that's limited to your domain, but I still doubt it will be a serious problem. And, by the time it causes issues, you will be dead. ;-) MD5 sums can collide, as any hash algorithm can -- it's just very hard to deliberately construct two messages with the same signature that could possibly be mistaken for each other.

MD5 is not for establishing uniqueness, it's for signing data to validate that it has not changed since its first signing.

Anima Legato
.oO all things connect through the motion of the mind

In reply to Re^2: Making a base32 representation of md5 by legato
in thread Making a base32 representation of md5 by nmerriweather

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