The only reason I want the hash is that I don't want a copy of this string laying around. I also don't need to know what it is, I just need to know if it's different. Think of this as a tripwire - if someone's user access level is changed, we find out.
I still think using a separate database (sqlite or not) is entirely unnecessary. The task simply isn't large enough of a scale to justify going to that extreme. That's like cutting a string with a chainsaw. Granted, the next time I'm at my workstation I'll just give it a go and just stick with whatever turns out "best" The alternatives are what I was looking for, and you all did provide them :) So here's the goal, since it seems it's still unclear: Cron will call my script on an interval (probably once a day... so yea). The script will determine if users were added, removed, or changed. If so, an email will be constructed with generic details "users bjoe, jdoe created; user mwallace deleted; user psouter access level changed" and sent to the MUA/MTA/whatever for delivery to myself and the other admins. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
