3.8 CRC Numbers

CRC (cyclic redundancy check) numbers provide a certain method of doing checksums. They are used by GAP to check whether files have changed. Whenever files are ``condensed'' -- for example for completion files (Completion Files) or when compiling files (The compiler) -- such a checksum is computed implicitly and stored within the condensed file.

When reading a condensed version of the file instead of the original one, the CRC checksum can be used to check whether the original has been changed in the meantime.

  • CrcFile( filename ) F

    can be used to compute a CRC checksum for the file with name filename.

    gap> CrcFile("lib/morpheus.gi");
    2705743645
    

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    GAP 4 manual
    February 2000