md5 and asc files
 

I'm trying to download slackware iso files, and the only options given are in md5 or asc format. What exactly are these? Checksums and signatures? How do I handle one of these files?

Where are you d/ling from?

Cheers,
Tink

You should have read the README.1st file:

How do I use asc and md5 files to verify what I have is authentic?

If you have a file you downloaded that contains the md5 sums of all of the disks, just run:
md5sum -c <md5sums-file>

The md5 sums of each of the ISO files will be computed and compaired with the list.

You may want to read the info pages for gpg. The md5 fingerprints will protect against tampering of the iso files, but if the md5sum is also replaced (on the website), you could still have a problem. Gpg uses the PGP system for authenticating that the file is from where it should be from. Because this type of fingerprint is encrypted with the senders private key.

to use an .asc file to verify a package's integrity, you need to have gnupg installed...

also, remember that gnupg and md5sum don't perform the same function...

here's some links:

http://httpd.apache.org/dev/verification.html

http://www.kernel.org/signature.html

http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/faqs.html


and if you wanna have a gnupg party:

http://www.cryptnet.net/fdp/crypto/gpg-party.html


=)