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RFC: cksum --base64/-b support


From: Jim Meyering
Subject: RFC: cksum --base64/-b support
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2023 12:40:11 -0800

Hi Pádraig! Happy new year (belatedly ;-). Hope you're well.

I'd like our generated announcements to be able to include
base64-encoded checksums without having to recommend verifying them
using openbsd's cksum, so...

I've begun writing the code to add --base64/-b support for GNU cksum,
prompted by this thread:
https://lists.gnu.org/r/diffutils-devel/2023-01/msg00015.html and the
fact that OpenBSD already has this option (as -b):
https://man.openbsd.org/cksum

Two questions:
- blake2b's tag is inconsistently capitalized. All of the other tags
are all-caps versions of their lower-case strings, but this one is
spelled BLAKE2b, with a lower-case "b" at the end. I presume this is
desired. Likely too late to change to make it consistent. Arose while
considering how to implement support for the "x" and "b"
option suffixes, to denote "use hex" or "use base64" as encoding,
while the usual default is of course hex, and --base64 changes that.
Leading to my second question:
- I'm inclined to work like the openbsd cksum and accept invocations
like "cksum -a sha1x" and "cksum -a sha1b". Any objection?

Also, comparing algorithms, openbsd has two that we don't: rmd160, sha512/256
I'm not interested in adding those in this diff, of course, but it may
be something to consider for compatibility.

What's the schedule for the next release?
Assuming this is desirable, want to include it there?

My own ETA is variable, depending on pressure/desire.
I've written most of the code (but not yet suffix support) and minimal
tests, but no documentation or NEWS.



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