SHA Perl 5 Extension Version 1.2

This is the Secure Hash Algorithm extension to Perl 5. I have used
Perl 5.003_xx in making this extension, but I know of no reason why
it could not be built with any version >= 5.002. The interface was
originally copied from the MD5 interface by Neil Winton
<N.Winton@axion.bt.co.uk>.

Very brief summary of what's new in 1.2:

o	Easier configuration: automatic determination of byte
	ordering; you get asked whether you want to use SHA or SHA-1
	(default is SHA-1)

o	Correct operation on big- and little-endian, 32- and 64-bit
	machines (I believe). (Not tested on all possible machines...)

o	A new routine that tells which version of the algorithm is
	being used: &SHA::sha_version returns a string, either 'SHA'
	or 'SHA-1', to indicate which one was chosen

To build the extension, unpack this distribution (presumably you have
already succeeded in doing this...), then type

    perl Makefile.PL	# Create a Makefile; this automatically determines
			# your byte order from the Config module, and
			# it also asks you if you want to use the old
			# SHA algorithm or the new SHA-1 algorithm:
			# I recommend the new SHA-1 algorithm

    make		# Build the extension locally; this does
			# require an ANSI C compiler for sha_func.c;
			# on Sparc machines, I have had to manually
			# type "gcc -c -O2 sha_func.c", and that seemed
			# to work successfully...

    make test		# Check to see that everything went ok

    make install	# Install it into the system directory

This creates a dynamically-linked extension. I haven't tried making a
statically-linked extension. If MakeMaker doesn't create a target for
a statically-extended perl executable, you should be able to unpack
this distribution in the ext/ subdirectory of the perl distribution,
then include SHA in the list of statically-linked extensions during
configuration of perl. I have not tried that myself.

This version of the SHA extension module should work under both big-
and little-endian machines with both 32- and 64-bit longs (more
precisely, perl's byteorder configuration variable has one of the
values 1234, 4321, 12345678, 87654321). I have successfully tested the
module under Linux/x86 (1234), Solaris/sparc (4321), and DEC Alpha
(12345678). (I have also tested it under "simulated" 64-bit machines:
using "unsigned long long", I tested 12345678 under Linux/x86, and
87654321 under Solaris/sparc. This requires editing of the files sha.h
and endian.h after the "perl Makefile.PL" and before the "make",
above. These tests were also successful.) I'd be grateful for any
success or failure reports (or bug fixes!) for other architectures. If
you have a weird byte order, say 3412, the extension will fail to
compile, rather than silently computing incorrect hashes. (But it
should be straightforward to add the necessary code to handle other
byte orders.)

After you've installed the SHA extension, you should be able to type
'perl sha_driver.pl -x' or 'perl test.pl' to check if it all worked
ok, including the installation. If the actual results don't match the
expected ones, there's something wrong.

For more details on how to use the extension, look at sha_driver.pl or
at SHA.pod.

This extension is available under the same copyright as Perl itself
is. The C sources in sha_func.c and in sha.h are in the public domain.

Please direct comments to me:
Uwe Hollerbach <uh@alumni.caltech.edu> or <uweh@bu.edu>