what I'm trying to do is create a list of sha-2 sums of files the names of which are stored in a file. The purpose is to verify from time to time whether any of the listed files have been modified or not in the
meantime.
So I can read the list of file names; what I don't understand is what the most efficient way would be to create a sha-2 sum for a file.
It doesn't even need to be sha-2 since there are no security issues involved. The only purpose is to figure out reliably if any of the files on the list have been modified or not. I don't want to go by file modification dates because that isn't entirely reliable.
I've been googling for examples of how to create a sha-2 sum of a file in perl without success. What I'm looking for is something like:
$hash = create_sha2_sum( $filename);
Do you know of any examples I could look at? Or is there a better way to figure out if a file has been modified?