MD5(3)

💖 MD5(3) — the Perl glow-up for the MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm 💖

okay bestie, welcome to MD5(3), a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation pile. sit down, hydrate, let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

MD5 — the Perl interface to the MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm. yes, that MD5. the one you've heard about. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

here's the whole vibe, verbatim, no cap:

use MD5;

$context = new MD5;
$context->reset();

$context->add(LIST);
$context->addfile(HANDLE);

$digest = $context->digest();
$string = $context->hexdigest();

$digest = MD5->hash(SCALAR);
$string = MD5->hexhash(SCALAR);

like… she's serving legacy API realness and honestly? she ate. 🔥

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so, real talk: the MD5 module is depreciated. (their spelling, not mine, i'm just the messenger 😭). use Digest::MD5 instead. periodt.

the MD5 module you're looking at right now? it's literally just a wrapper around the Digest::MD5 module. it exists for one reason and one reason only: so that legacy code that rely on the old interface still work, and so that code gets the speed benefit of the new module. main character behaviour tbh 👑

and there's a little bonus on top of everything: in addition to the methods provided for Digest::MD5 objects, this module provides the class methods MD5->hash() and MD5->hexhash(). those two do the exact same thing as the md5() and md5_hex() functions provided by Digest::MD5. same energy, different entrance ✨

ngl, if you're writing brand new code in 2025, go straight to Digest::MD5. this page is giving "museum exhibit" and we respect it for that 🎀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Digest::MD5 — the one you should actually be using, bestie. go, run, don't walk 🏃‍♀️💨

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and that's the whole page, no crumbs left behind 💜 this lil' slice of documentation is from perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25 — so go forth, hash responsibly, and remember: deprecated modules deserve love too, they just shouldn't be in your new project. mwah 😘💖