A note on vendor reaction speed to the e=3 problem

[Greg Black]

On 2006-09-28, Leichter, Jerry wrote:

> VMS has for years had a simple CHECKSUM command, which had a variant,
> CHECKSUM/IMAGE, applicable only to executable image files.  It knew
> enough about the syntax of executables to skip over irrelevant metadata
> like link date and time.  (The checksums computed weren't cryptographic
> - at least the last time I used it, many years ago.  The command was
> created to use in patches to provide a quick verification that the file
> being patched was "the right one".)  I've always found it surprising
> that no one seems to have developed similar tools for Unix - with the
> Gnu libraries for portable access to object/ executable files, it could
> be done relatively easily.

This is incorrect.  Hundreds of people have developed such tools
and use them regularly.  I've never bothered to look for any
published versions, because my own tool works for me, but I'd be
surprised if there weren't any out there in the wild.

Greg


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