PySkein 0.5
===========

PySkein is an extension module for Python 3.0 or later, allowing Python scripts
to compute hash values with the recently proposed `Skein hash algorithm`_ (one
of the Second Round Candidates in the `NIST SHA-3 Competition`_).  It is based
on the optimized version of the Skein reference implementation, written in C by
Doug Whiting. This guarantees efficient hashing (373 MB/s for Skein-512-512
called from Python on a 2.8 GHz Opteron).

**Note:** PySkein 0.5 implements the most recent version of the Skein
specification (version 1.2), which defines revised rotation constants. Its hash
values are therefore incompatible with those generated by earlier versions of
PySkein, which were based on version 1.1 of the specification.

.. _`Skein hash algorithm`: http://www.skein-hash.info
.. _`NIST SHA-3 Competition`: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/hash/sha-3/index.html


.. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2

    skein
    threefish
    random
    scripts
    download
