sxhash computes a hash code for an object and returns the hash code as a non-negative fixnum. A property of sxhash is that (equal x y) implies (= (sxhash x) (sxhash y)).

The manner in which the hash code is computed is implementation-dependent but independent of the particular “incarnation” or “core image.” Hash values produced by sxhash may be written out to files, for example, and meaningfully read in again into an instance of the same implementation.