FICT is a simple file integrity checking tool.

Usage

Basic usage is as follows.

cd ~
fict init
fict add ~/Documents
fict list
fict compute
fict check

The database will is stored in ~/.fict/fict_db. The fict_db file that's normally in ~/.fict can be manipulated manually. The changes will be ingested upon next run.

The location of where the fict_db can be stored can be specified with the option --fict-dir. The default is in your $HOME

--hash-tool defaults to sha512sum. Though you can pass in whatever tool you want to use. Some options are b2sum, md5sum, sha1sum, crc32. Use the tool that you feel best about. md5sum is available everywhere and is a good middle ground. b2sum is faster but not as available. We do a b2sum on every file by default but this can also be adjusted via --default-hash-tool. crc32 is simple but may take longer than all even though it's supposed to be faster. crc32 is meant for short communication verification rather than a 27GB mp4.

Note that if your fict-db is defined to use one tool and you change it after the fact. The software will get confused. In that case it's recommended you open the fict_db file and use a tool like sed(1) to change all occurrences.

The fict_db is written out every so often. At the time of writing this at around every 1000 computations. This can be changed in the code but it's not at the moment a cli parameter. The bigger the number the more potential lost work you can have if your system crashes. The shorter the number the more churn on your disk.

If you notice any bugs feel free to email me.

Note I use a Linux desktop so that's what I run this on. There may need to be adapting to get it to work on Macs.

Installing

pip install Fict

You can also clone the code from github and run the fict command.

Publishing to Pypi

pip install twine
python3 setup.py sdist
twine upload dist/*