From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-01-28T01:41:45+09:00
Subject: Re: checksum with ruby, how?

shasckaw wrote:
> Hello there, I need help.
> I'm searching for checksum funtionality to use with ruby,
> it seems that I have all I need with digest/md5 but I can't find any 
> documentation about how to use it (searched on ruby-doc and RAA)
> 
> Can someone help me?

Basic usage is easy:

$ irb -r digest/md5
irb(main):001:0> Digest::MD5.digest("some string")
=> "Z\307I\373\356\3116\a\374(\326f\276\205\347:"
irb(main):002:0> Digest::MD5.hexdigest("some string")
=> "5ac749fbeec93607fc28d666be85e73a"

so you have a choice between the binary string or the equivalent ASCII 
hex string (use the latter in a text doc).