Get the checksum of a tarfile by path

tarhash.py

def tarhash(tarpath, hash='sha1'):
    """
    given a path to a tar file, return a checksum of its 
    summed / concatenated contents. 
    tarpath - a tar.gz path string to open  
    hash - one of the hash methods supported by hashlib
    """
    total_hash = hashlib.new(hash)

    with open(tarpath, 'rb') as input_file:
        tar = tarfile.open(mode="r|*", fileobj=input_file)

        chunk_size = 100 * 1024

        for member in tar:
            if not member.isfile():
                continue
            f = tar.extractfile(member)
            data = f.read(chunk_size)
            while data:
                total_hash.update(data)
                data = f.read(chunk_size)
        tar.close()

    return total_hash.hexdigest()