Re: [ftpext] draft-ietf-ftpext2-hash command name and default algorithm

[Daniel Stenberg <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, 18 Jan 2011, Robert Oslin wrote:

>>> I personally think CRC32 is too weak for multi-gigabyte files.
>
> Do you mean that CRC32 is weak period?

CRC32 uses 32 bits to indicate a checksum for the data. I claim it gets weaker 
the more data to try to check with it. Having a CRC32 field for a sufficiently 
small amount of data will be fine IMO - but that's not what we design for 
here.

> One may argue that the "weaker" the hash the faster it will compute, making 
> it ideal for use with larger files (in order to mitigate the chance of 
> client timeouts).

Clients don't have to timeout. The server can easily send "213-" lines every 
5-10 seconds or so while calculating the hash. Or is there a reason why not?

-- 

  / daniel.haxx.se