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Asked: 2026-05-28T04:54:08+00:00

I’m designing a system to process plain text files, one of its features will

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I’m designing a system to process plain text files, one of its features will be to move processed files to an archive server once they’ve been completely processed through the system. What I want to do is tag a text file once its been completely processed by the system, i.e. a system seal of approval or marker. The reason for this is I want this same system to be able to analyze the text file later and search for this hidden marker so it can identify it as having been processed in the past. At the same time, I want this marker to be ignored by any other system that might be handling this file

I was thinking of having a unique key that only this system uses and has access to and creating a procedure for hashing and salting the key and placing it within the text file before it gets moved to its final destination. I’m curious about any other techniques for creating a hidden seal or marker. So to summarize:

  1. Can I create a set or string of encoded bits and place them in a text file?
  2. Can these bits be hidden within the text file such that they are ignored by any other system that might handle this text file?

I’d appreciate any insight or feedback.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Personally, i would avoid modifying original content, ASCII text file (to my knowledge) can’t be signed in a way that would prevent all applications from seeing the signature.

    Instead, i would take md5 of the file maintain “processed” one separately from the ones that have not yet been “processed.

    Map<MD5, FileName> is a structure to consider. You should be able to write code to both retrieve by MD5 or file name.

    Hope it helps.

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