Looked at the code and the install_util is used by init when copying a 
tracker in place. My guess is the sha1 sum cab be used to tell if the
file has changed since the distribution.

My claim is we should leave the SHA code in place unchanged.
Maybe add a "findchanges" command to admin. This would report on
files in the tree that have a SHA sum line but the contents don't
match the sum. This could be useful for upgrades so people can
identify locally changed files.