Commit 9736147a authored by Tim Peters's avatar Tim Peters

Repaired some glitches in the MD5 and SHA docs; copied the descriptions of

the MD5 methods into the SHA docs (substituting "sha" for "md5", of course,
and changing the stuff that depended on digest size accordingly).
Fred, don't trust me!
parent 8b64d578
......@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
This module implements the interface to RSA's MD5 message digest
\index{message digest, MD5}
algorithm (see also Internet \rfc{1321}). Its use is quite
straightforward:\ use the \function{new()} to create an md5 object.
straightforward:\ use \function{new()} to create an md5 object.
You can now feed this object with arbitrary strings using the
\method{update()} method, and at any point you can ask it for the
\dfn{digest} (a strong kind of 128-bit checksum,
......@@ -56,13 +56,15 @@ arguments, i.e.\ \code{m.update(a); m.update(b)} is equivalent to
\begin{methoddesc}[md5]{digest}{}
Return the digest of the strings passed to the \method{update()}
method so far. This is an 16-byte string which may contain
method so far. This is a 16-byte string which may contain
non-\ASCII{} characters, including null bytes.
\end{methoddesc}
\begin{methoddesc}[md5]{hexdigest}{}
Like \method{digest()} except the digest is returned as a string of
length 32, containing only hexadecimal digits.
length 32, containing only hexadecimal digits. This may
be used to exchange the value safely in email or other non-binary
environments.
\end{methoddesc}
\begin{methoddesc}[md5]{copy}{}
......
......@@ -8,12 +8,12 @@
This module implements the interface to NIST's\index{NIST} secure hash
algorithm,\index{Secure Hash Algorithm} known as SHA. It is used in
the same way as the \refmodule{md5} module:\ use the \function{new()}
the same way as the \refmodule{md5} module:\ use \function{new()}
to create an sha object, then feed this object with arbitrary strings
using the \method{update()} method, and at any point you can ask it
for the \dfn{digest} of the concatenation of the strings fed to it
so far.\index{checksum!SHA} SHA digests are 160 bits instead of 128
bits.
so far.\index{checksum!SHA} SHA digests are 160 bits instead of
MD5's 128 bits.
\begin{funcdesc}{new}{\optional{string}}
......@@ -37,14 +37,33 @@ attributes of the sha objects returned by \function{new()}:
\end{datadesc}
A sha object has all the methods the md5 objects have, plus one:
An sha object has the same methods as md5 objects:
\begin{methoddesc}[sha]{update}{arg}
Update the sha object with the string \var{arg}. Repeated calls are
equivalent to a single call with the concatenation of all the
arguments, i.e.\ \code{m.update(a); m.update(b)} is equivalent to
\code{m.update(a+b)}.
\end{methoddesc}
\begin{methoddesc}[sha]{digest}{}
Return the digest of the strings passed to the \method{update()}
method so far. This is a 20-byte string which may contain
non-\ASCII{} characters, including null bytes.
\end{methoddesc}
\begin{methoddesc}[sha]{hexdigest}{}
Return the digest value as a string of hexadecimal digits. This may
be used to exchange the value safely in email or other non-binary
environments.
Like \method{digest()} except the digest is returned as a string of
length 40, containing only hexadecimal digits. This may
be used to exchange the value safely in email or other non-binary
environments.
\end{methoddesc}
\begin{methoddesc}[sha]{copy}{}
Return a copy (``clone'') of the sha object. This can be used to
efficiently compute the digests of strings that share a common initial
substring.
\end{methoddesc}
\begin{seealso}
\seetitle[http://csrc.nist.gov/fips/fip180-1.txt]{Secure Hash Standard}{
......
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