Calculate multiple checksums from the same InputStream using DigestInputStream

Question

I am trying to figure out how to read multiple digests (md5, sha1, gpg) based on the same InputStream using DigestInputStream. From what I've checked in the documentation, it seems to be possible by cloning the digest. Could somebody please illustrate this?

I don't want to be re-reading the stream in order to calculate the checksums.

Answer 1

You could wrap a DigestInputStream around a DigestInputStream and so on recursively:

DigestInputStream shaStream = new DigestInputStream(
    inStream, MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1"));
DigestInputStream md5Stream = new DigestInputStream(
    shaStream, MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5"));
// VERY IMPORTANT: read from final stream since it's FilterInputStream
byte[] shaDigest = shaStream.getMessageDigest().digest();
byte[] md5Digest = md5Stream.getMessageDigest().digest();

Answer 2

The Javadoc is pretty clear. You can use clone only to calculate different intermediate digests using the same algorithm. You cannot use DigestInputStream to calculate different digest algorithms without reading the stream multiple times. You must use a regular InputStream and multiple MessageDigest objects; read the data once, passing each buffer to all MessageDigest objects to get multiple digests with different algorithms.

You could easily encapsulate this in your own variant of DigestInputStream, say MultipleDigestInputStream that follows the same general approach but accepts a collection of MessageDigest objects or algorithm names.

Pseudojava (error handling omitted)

MessageDigest sha = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1");
MessageDigest md5 = MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5");
InputStream input = ...;
byte[] buffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE];
int len;
while((len = input.read(buffer)) >= 0)
{
    sha.update(buffer,0,len);
    md5.update(buffer,0,len);
    ...
}
byte[] shaDigest = sha.digest();
byte[] md5Digest = md5.digest();