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Old 18-Dec-2008, 08:33
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Default Re: Suggestions for openSUSE-11.1 Newbie Installation sticki

Quote:
Originally Posted by oldcpu View Post
I do not believe this to be accurate.

I have downloaded torrent files that were corrupted, but the torrent application gave me a completed message.

Later I realized the file was corrupted, and I then forced (on the bittorrent application) the torrent checksum, and then, and only then, did the torrent application pickup on the fact that the downloaded file was corrupted.

I suppose since applications can be written poorly and one might not have sufficient faith in what they're using, a manual checksum can be done.

I have seen this behaviour on both ktorrent and azureus. This is not common, but it does happen. I've had this happen about 1/2 dozen times over the course of the past few years.

Hence I believe the md5sum check of the iso file is still useful, even for iso files downloaded by torrent.
That would be a very poor Torrent Client, it would indicate faulty code. As I noted, the checksums are there for the application to <automatically> check not just each piece but the finished file.

I have used a few Torrent clients for many years, uTorrent on Windows and built my own MonoTorrent Client (which is of course cross platform) and have never experienced a faulty download except when the source was bad (a 100% record).

Edit Addendum: Just a thought, although not widely discussed it's good practice to create different directories for files in the process of being downloaded and completed. If you do this, you can be <sure> the file has completed and no straggler pieces are left wanting. Yes, if you <think> the file has completed but it hasn't and you shutdown/remove the file with positive confirmation the result can be an incomplete file.

Last edited by tsu2; 18-Dec-2008 at 08:41. Reason: addendum
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