Paul Fuller wrote:
> I agree with Darren's answer that you can always store the original MD5 
> as an attribute.  Ditto for the original name, source website and any 
> other attributes that you are interested in.

If you use the original MD5 as the file name, then add the attributes to it, 
you don't even have to look at the metadata to tell if you already have the 
file. You don't have to hash it, or store the hash anywhere else.

> The advantage is that you can generate whatever from the metadata. Can't 
> say the same for the structure approach.

You can. You're just storing the metadata in the file name. If you run thru 
the full path, you can extract whatever metadata you need temporarily. Using 
a file system as a database this way is a pretty common technique. (There 
even used to be a pre-SQL database mechanism called "heirarchical database" 
that worked just like that.)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

Post a reply to this message