Java: How to create SHA-1 for a file?

Question

What is the best way to create a SHA-1 for a very large file in pure Java6? How to implement this method:

public abstract String createSha1(java.io.File file);

Answer 1

Use the MessageDigest class and supply data piece by piece. The example below ignores details like turning byte[] into string and closing the file, but should give you the general idea.

public byte[] createSha1(File file) throws Exception  {
    MessageDigest digest = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1");
    InputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
    int n = 0;
    byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
    while (n != -1) {
        n = fis.read(buffer);
        if (n > 0) {
            digest.update(buffer, 0, n);
        }
    }
    return digest.digest();
}

Answer 2

Op requested the function to return a String of the SHA1, so I took @jeffs answer and added the missing conversion to String:

/**
 * Read the file and calculate the SHA-1 checksum
 * 
 * @param file
 *            the file to read
 * @return the hex representation of the SHA-1 using uppercase chars
 * @throws FileNotFoundException
 *             if the file does not exist, is a directory rather than a
 *             regular file, or for some other reason cannot be opened for
 *             reading
 * @throws IOException
 *             if an I/O error occurs
 * @throws NoSuchAlgorithmException
 *             should never happen
 */
private static String calcSHA1(File file) throws FileNotFoundException,
        IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException {

    MessageDigest sha1 = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1");
    try (InputStream input = new FileInputStream(file)) {

        byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
        int len = input.read(buffer);

        while (len != -1) {
            sha1.update(buffer, 0, len);
            len = input.read(buffer);
        }

        return new HexBinaryAdapter().marshal(sha1.digest());
    }
}