Identifying Unique Files

[GameSoft]

Hi all, I am new to the forum so apologies in advance for any semi deliberate idiocy I display over the getting to know you period.

What is the best way (yes, I know this is subjective) to uniquely identify (and thus destinguish from another) a file in PHP? Is it best to generate a unique HASH for the file, and if so can anyone point me in the direction of where I can learn how this is done. I'll need to store this 'value' in some sort of manifest for later reference.

A google search mostly revealed code snippets and tutorials for E-Commerce goals although I do apologise If I missed an obvious tutorial, have been up 15 hours and my eyes are only half functioning....

Thanks very much in advance for any pointers

[rehfeld]

well, i will assume you are talking about the contents of a file, because the filename itself should be unique, at least unique to others in the same directory.

you can easily make a hash of the data in a file by using one of these

md5_file()
sha1_file()

[dalecosp]

I'm a tad thick-headed, so excuse my blabber if I've got this all wrong. Would

$hash=md5('somefile');

be what you might be looking for?

[GameSoft]

Thanks guys. I'll give those a whirl