The manifest checker is a command line tool for the creation and checking of manifest files. Typically it is intended to be used to confirm that a directory structure can be deployed/copied in a consistent way from a source to a target.

There is a two step process for confirming consistency :

1. A manifest is created (using the manifest create command). This command scans the directory tree, looking for known source code files. A manifest file is created, which is a simple text file listing every source code file found, and a checksum/hash for each file - thus recording a reasonable mark of the file contents.
2. Following deployment of the directory tree (including the manifest file), the manifest can be checked against the deployed copy, by executing the manifest check command. This command scans the directory tree, looking for the source code files, and checking the found files against the manifest file is created. During this check 3 types of exception can be reported :
   • mismatched files - where the signature of the deployed file is not the same as that in the manifest file
   • missing files - where files are listed in the manifest but not in the deployed directory tree
   • record_extra files - where files exist in the deployed directory tree but don't exist in the manifest file

The toolset was initially designed to check a deployment of a Django based website, and therefore many of the defaults are set for DJango projects including : The source files to look for, and also which sub-directories to ignore. All of these can be overidden by command line options, and there are early plans for a configuration file as well.

Links :

• Full Documentation
• Source Code