Quick question:

When converting to WavPack lossless, I use the -hm options - h is for higher queality compression and m is for creating an md5 checksum. Is this checksum just for verifying the integrity of the file, or how exactly does it work? I am not using my files for trading purposes, but I just want to do everything I can to personally ensure that my archive is sound.

When I searched, RainDawg's post here made me wonder if I should even bother. Is it verifying the integrity or is it just identifying the file somehow?

When I ran a verify on one of these files, it didn't bring up anything about the stored md5 in the results.

Yes, the MD5 is stored for integrity checking purposes.

The md5 only works on the decoded audio data. This allows you to check if the audio data in the file is identical, between two files that may have different tagging or compression settings.

I think this is not so important for normal usage.

You don't need md5 at all for checking Wavpack files for errors. You can use its built-in CRC check using the "wvunpack -v" command, as bryant himself said:


You might want to have a look at this thread, about how to deal with wavpack errors. There are some valuable tips for batch verifying wavpack files there.
You can also create MD5 hashes, of course, but these won't be used by wavpack. You can use them with third-party md5 checking tools. It's just another nice option wavpack has

EDIT: "wvunpack -v" not "wavpack -v".

Understood, thanks for getting back to me so quick.