Mainly to provide consistency with other tools that test file integrity 
such as cksum(1). (Typically, when sha256 is available, sha512 also is)

SHA-512 performs significantly faster (on 64 bit machines) when I use 
mtree with my diff on thousands of files.

Whilst it's not a need, it's nice to have the option.

Thanks

On Mon, Jun 02, 2025 at 02:59:59PM +1000, Damien Miller wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Jun 2025, aiden@kaizenos.com wrote:
> 
> > Hi @tech
> > 
> > The following diff adds SHA-512 support to mtree.
> > Would this be welcome?
> 
> What is the need for or benefit from SHA512 here?
>