[lug] Testing CDs and ISO Images

[Tkil]

>>>>> "Dhruva" == Dhruva B Reddy <bdhruva at gmx.net> writes:

Dhruva> I recently burned a data CD and some of the files did not make
Dhruva> it on there in their entirety, which I did not find out until
Dhruva> after I had deleted the ISO image and original files from my
Dhruva> hard drive (^%&*(%).

Dhruva> To prevent this from happening again, I am looking for a way
Dhruva> to compare directory trees, something like 'cmp', but compares
Dhruva> whole trees.  Is there an easy way to do this?

In addition to the various methods people have given you for
validating a burned CD, you might want to be extra paranoid and
validate your actual ISO image as well.  You can mount it using the
loopback device, and do your checking (e.g., md5sum) there.

(I'm only adding this because of the ambiguity I saw in your first
paragraph; it's not clear whether your problem was a bad ISO image, or
a bad burn.  Unless you know which stage it had trouble with, you
might want to check both stages independently.)

t.