In software packaging, it is common to list the contents of a distribution in a manifest file. This file simply enumerates the files which are included in the distribution, either for processing by various packaging tools, or for human consumption.
The term is a loan from shipping, where a ship's manifest would list the crew or cargo of a vessel.
The manifest may optionally contain a cryptographic hash or checksum of each file. By creating a cryptographic signature for such a manifest file, the entire contents of the distribution package can be validated, as altering any of the files will invalidate the checksums in the manifest file.
Famous quotes containing the words manifest and/or file:
“Is it not manifest that our academic institutions should have a wider scope; that they should not be timid and keep the ruts of the last generation, but that wise men thinking for themselves and heartily seeking the good of mankind, and counting the cost of innovation, should dare to arouse the young to a just and heroic life; that the moral nature should be addressed in the school-room, and children should be treated as the high-born candidates of truth and virtue?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Probably nothing in the experience of the rank and file of workers causes more bitterness and envy than the realization which comes sooner or later to many of them that they are “stuck” and can go no further.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)