Digest::MD5(3)

NAME
Digest::MD5 - Perl interface to the MD5 Algorithm

SYNOPSIS
 # Functional style
 use Digest::MD5  qw(md5 md5_hex md5_base64);

 $digest = md5($data);
 $digest = md5_hex($data);
 $digest = md5_base64($data);

 # OO style
 use Digest::MD5;

 $ctx = Digest::MD5->new;

 $ctx->add($data);
 $ctx->addfile(*FILE);

 $digest = $ctx->digest;
 $digest = $ctx->hexdigest;
 $digest = $ctx->b64digest;

DESCRIPTION
The "Digest::MD5" module allows you to use the RSA Data Security Inc. MD5 Message Digest algorithm from within Perl programs. The algorithm takes as input a message of arbitrary length and produces as output a 128-bit "fingerprint" or "message digest" of the input.

The "Digest::MD5" module provide a procedural interface for simple use, as well as an object oriented interface that can handle messages of arbitrary length and which can read files directly.

A binary digest will be 16 bytes long. A hex digest will be 32 characters long. A base64 digest will be 22 characters long.

FUNCTIONS
The following functions can be exported from the "Digest::MD5" module. No functions are exported by default.

md5($data,...)
    This function will concatenate all arguments, calculate the MD5 digest of this "message", and return it in binary form.

md5_hex($data,...)
    Same as md5(), but will return the digest in hexadecimal form.

md5_base64($data,...)
    Same as md5(), but will return the digest as a base64 encoded string.

    The base64 encoded string returned is not padded to be a multiple of 4 bytes long. If you want interoperability with other base64 encoded md5 digests you might want to append the string "==" to the result.

METHODS
The following methods are available:

$md5 = Digest::MD5->new
    The constructor returns a new "Digest::MD5" object which encapsulate the state of the MD5 message-digest algorithm. You can add data to the object and finally ask for the digest.

    If called as an instance method (i.e. $md5->new) it will just reset the state the object to the state of a newly created object. No new object is created in this case.

$md5->reset
    This is just an alias for $md5->new.

$md5->add($data,...)
    The $data provided as argument are appended to the message we calculate the digest for. The return value is the $md5 object itself.

$md5->addfile($io_handle)
    The $io_handle is read until EOF and the content is appended to the message we calculate the digest for. The return value is the $md5 object itself.

    In most cases you want to make sure that the $io_handle is set up to be in binmode().

$md5->digest
    Return the binary digest for the message.

    Note that the "digest" operation is effectively a destructive, read-once operation. Once it has been performed, the "Digest::MD5" object is automatically "reset" and can be used to calculate another digest value.

$md5->hexdigest
    Same as $md5->digest, but will return the digest in hexadecimal form.

$md5->b64digest
    Same as $md5->digest, but will return the digest as a base64 encoded string.

    The base64 encoded string returned is not padded to be a multiple of 4 bytes long. If you want interoperability with other base64 encoded md5 digests you might want to append the string "==" to the result.

EXAMPLES
The simplest way to use this library is to import the md5_hex() function (or one of its cousins):

    use Digest::MD5 qw(md5_hex);
    print "Digest is ", md5_hex("foobarbaz"), "\n";

The above example would print out the message

    Digest is 6df23dc03f9b54cc38a0fc1483df6e21

provided that the implementation is working correctly. The same checksum can also be calculated in OO style:

    use Digest::MD5;

    $md5 = Digest::MD5->new;
    $md5->add('foo', 'bar');
    $md5->add('baz');
    $digest = $md5->hexdigest;

    print "Digest is $digest\n";

With OO style you can break the message arbitrary. This means that we are no longer limited to have space for the whole message in memory, i.e. we can handle messages of any size.

This is useful when calculating checksum for files:

    use Digest::MD5;

    my $file = shift || "/etc/passwd";
    open(FILE, $file) or die "Can't open '$file': $!";
    binmode(FILE);

    $md5 = Digest::MD5->new;
    while (<FILE>) {
        $md5->add($_);
    }
    close(FILE);
    print $md5->b64digest, " $file\n";

Or we can use the builtin addfile method for more efficient reading of the file:

    use Digest::MD5;

    my $file = shift || "/etc/passwd";
    open(FILE, $file) or die "Can't open '$file': $!";
    binmode(FILE);

    print Digest::MD5->new->addfile(*FILE)->hexdigest, " $file\n";

SEE ALSO
Digest, Digest::MD2, Digest::SHA1, Digest::HMAC

md5sum(1)

RFC 1321

COPYRIGHT
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

 Copyright 1998-2002 Gisle Aas.
 Copyright 1995-1996 Neil Winton.
 Copyright 1991-1992 RSA Data Security, Inc.

The MD5 algorithm is defined in RFC 1321. The basic C code implementing the algorithm is derived from that in the RFC and is covered by the following copyright:

•   Copyright (C) 1991-2, RSA Data Security, Inc. Created 1991. All rights reserved.

    License to copy and use this software is granted provided that it is identified as the "RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm" in all material mentioning or referencing this software or this function.

    License is also granted to make and use derivative works provided that such works are identified as "derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm" in all material mentioning or referencing the derived work.

    RSA Data Security, Inc. makes no representations concerning either the merchantability of this software or the suitability of this software for any particular purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty of any kind.

    These notices must be retained in any copies of any part of this documentation and/or software.

This copyright does not prohibit distribution of any version of Perl containing this extension under the terms of the GNU or Artistic licenses.

AUTHORS
The original MD5 interface was written by Neil Winton ("N.Winton@axion.bt.co.uk").

This release was made by Gisle Aas <gisle@ActiveState.com>