Provided by: tcl-trf-doc_2.1.4-dfsg2-1_all bug

NAME

       crc-zlib - Message digest "crc-zlib"

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  ?8.2?

       package require Trf  ?2.1.3?

       crc-zlib ?options...? ?data?

DESCRIPTION

       The  command  crc-zlib  is one of several message digests provided by the package trf. See
       trf-intro for an overview of the whole package.

       crc-zlib ?options...? ?data?
              The options listed below are understood by the digest if and only if the digest  is
              attached to a channel.  See section IMMEDIATE versus ATTACHED for an explanation of
              the term attached.

              -mode absorb|write|transparent
                     This option has  to  be  present.  The  specified  argument  determines  the
                     behaviour of the digest in attached mode.

                     Beyond  the  argument  values  listed  above  all  unique  abbreviations are
                     recognized too. Their meaning is explained below:

                     absorb All data written to the channel is used to calculate the value of the
                            message  digest  and  then  passed unchanged to the next level in the
                            stack of transformations for the channel the digest is  attached  to.
                            When  the  channel is closed the completed digest is written out too,
                            essentially attaching the vlaue of the diggest after the  information
                            actually written to the channel.

                            When reading from the channel a value for the digest is computed too,
                            and after closing of the channel compared to  the  digest  which  was
                            attached,  i.e.  came  behind the actual data.  The option -matchflag
                            has to be specified so that the  digest  knows  where  to  store  the
                            result  of  said comparison. This result is a string and either "ok",
                            or "failed".

                     write  All data read from or written to the channel the digest  is  attached
                            to  is  ignored  and  thrown away. Only a value for the digest of the
                            data is computed.  When the channel is closed the computed values are
                            stored  as  ordered  through  the options -write-destination, -write-
                            type, -read-destination, and -read-type.

                     transparent
                            This mode is a mixture of both absorb and write modes. As for  absorb
                            all  data,  read or written, passes through the digest unchanged. The
                            generated values for the digest however are handled in the  same  way
                            as for write.

              -matchflag varname
                     This option can be used if and only if the option "-mode absorb" is present.
                     In that situation the argument  is  the  name  of  a  global  or  namespaced
                     variable.  The  digest  will write the result of comparing two digest values
                     into this variable. The option will be ignored if the channel is write-only,
                     because in that case there will be no comparison of digest values.

              -write-type variable|channel
                     This option can be used for digests in mode write or transparent. Beyond the
                     values listed above all their  unique  abbreviations  are  also  allowed  as
                     argument  values.   The option determines the type of the argument to option
                     -write-destination. It defaults to variable.

              -read-type variable|channel
                     Like option -write-type, but for option -read-destination.

              -write-destination data
                     This option can be used for digests in mode write or transparent.  The value
                     data  is  either the name of a global (or namespaced) variable or the handle
                     of a writable channel, dependent on the value  of  option  -write-type.  The
                     message  digest computed for data written to the attached channel is written
                     into it after the attached channel was closed.  The option is ignored if the
                     channel is read-only.

                     Note that using a variable may yield incorrect results under tcl 7.6, due to
                     embedded \0's.

              -read-destination data
                     This option can be used for digests in mode write or transparent.  The value
                     data  is  either the name of a global (or namespaced) variable or the handle
                     of a writable channel, dependent on the  value  of  option  -read-type.  The
                     message  digest  computed for data read from the attached channel is written
                     into it after the attached channel was closed.  The option is ignored if the
                     channel is write-only.

                     Note that using a variable may yield incorrect results under tcl 7.6, due to
                     embedded \0's.

       The options listed below are always understood by the digest,  attached  versus  immediate
       does  not  matter.  See  section  IMMEDIATE  versus ATTACHED for explanations of these two
       terms.

              -attach channel
                     The presence/absence of this option determines the main  operation  mode  of
                     the transformation.

                     If  present the transformation will be stacked onto the channel whose handle
                     was given to the option and run in attached mode. More about this in section
                     IMMEDIATE versus ATTACHED.

                     If the option is absent the transformation is used in immediate mode and the
                     options listed below are recognized. More about this  in  section  IMMEDIATE
                     versus ATTACHED.

              -in channel
                     This options is legal if and only if the transformation is used in immediate
                     mode. It provides the handle of the channel the data to transform has to  be
                     read from.

                     If  the  transformation  is  in immediate mode and this option is absent the
                     data to transform is expected as the last argument to the transformation.

              -out channel
                     This options is legal if and only if the transformation is used in immediate
                     mode.  It  provides  the  handle of the channel the generated transformation
                     result is written to.

                     If the transformation is in immediate mode and this  option  is  absent  the
                     generated data is returned as the result of the command itself.

NOTES

       This  command  uses  the  same  CRC  polynomial  as  the  CRC  algorithm  used by the zlib
       compression library (http://www.gzip.org/zlib/).

IMMEDIATE VERSUS ATTACHED

       The transformation distinguishes between  two  main  ways  of  using  it.  These  are  the
       immediate and attached operation modes.

       For  the  attached mode the option -attach is used to associate the transformation with an
       existing channel. During the execution of the  command  no  transformation  is  performed,
       instead  the  channel  is  changed in such a way, that from then on all data written to or
       read from it passes through the transformation and is modified  by  it  according  to  the
       definition above.  This attachment can be revoked by executing the command unstack for the
       chosen channel. This is the only way to do this at the Tcl level.

       In the second mode,  which  can  be  detected  by  the  absence  of  option  -attach,  the
       transformation immediately takes data from either its commandline or a channel, transforms
       it, and returns the result either as result of the command, or writes it into  a  channel.
       The mode is named after the immediate nature of its execution.

       Where the data is taken from, and delivered to, is governed by the presence and absence of
       the options -in and -out.  It should be noted that this ability to immediately  read  from
       and/or write to a channel is an historic artifact which was introduced at the beginning of
       Trf's life when Tcl version 7.6 was current as this and earlier versions have  trouble  to
       deal with \0 characters embedded into either input or output.

SEE ALSO

       adler,  crc,  crc-zlib,  haval,  md2,  md5,  md5_otp,  ripemd-128,  ripemd-160, sha, sha1,
       sha1_otp, trf-intro

KEYWORDS

       authentication, crc, crc-zlib, hash, hashing, mac, message digest, zip, zlib

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1996-2003, Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>