diff -r 3683d7c533f9 indra/cmake/TemplateCheck.cmake
--- a/indra/cmake/TemplateCheck.cmake	Fri Sep 24 15:44:26 2010 +0100
+++ b/indra/cmake/TemplateCheck.cmake	Thu Mar 03 13:36:15 2011 -0800
@@ -5,10 +5,10 @@
 macro (check_message_template _target)
   add_custom_command(
       TARGET ${_target}
-      POST_BUILD
+      PRE_LINK
       COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE}
       ARGS ${SCRIPTS_DIR}/template_verifier.py
-           --mode=development --cache_master
-      COMMENT "Verifying message template"
+           --mode=development --cache_master ${TEMPLATE_VERIFIER_OPTIONS}
+      COMMENT "Verifying message template - See http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Template_verifier.py"
       )
 endmacro (check_message_template)
diff -r 3683d7c533f9 indra/newview/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/indra/newview/CMakeLists.txt	Fri Sep 24 15:44:26 2010 +0100
+++ b/indra/newview/CMakeLists.txt	Thu Mar 03 13:36:15 2011 -0800
@@ -1631,8 +1631,6 @@
         # sorted out on the parabuild cluster...
         #${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${CMAKE_CFG_INTDIR}/event_host.tar.bz2)
 
-      check_message_template(package)
-
     endif (PACKAGE)
 endif (WINDOWS)
 
@@ -1711,7 +1709,6 @@
     add_custom_target(package ALL DEPENDS ${product}.tar.bz2)
     add_dependencies(package linux-crash-logger-target)
     add_dependencies(package linux-updater-target)
-    check_message_template(package)
   endif (PACKAGE)
 
   add_custom_command(
@@ -1774,7 +1771,6 @@
 
   if (PACKAGE)
       add_custom_target(package ALL DEPENDS ${VIEWER_BINARY_NAME}) 
-      check_message_template(package)
 
       add_custom_command(
         TARGET package POST_BUILD
@@ -1935,4 +1931,5 @@
 
 endif (LL_TESTS)
 
+check_message_template(${VIEWER_BINARY_NAME})
 
diff -r 3683d7c533f9 scripts/messages/message_template.msg.sha1
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/scripts/messages/message_template.msg.sha1	Thu Mar 03 13:36:15 2011 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
+a7f6fe7e34c9c92b7315c6fb56ad32b8f651d4fb
\ No newline at end of file
diff -r 3683d7c533f9 scripts/template_verifier.py
--- a/scripts/template_verifier.py	Fri Sep 24 15:44:26 2010 +0100
+++ b/scripts/template_verifier.py	Thu Mar 03 13:36:15 2011 -0800
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
 import optparse
 import os
 import urllib
+import hashlib
 
 from indra.ipc import compatibility
 from indra.ipc import tokenstream
@@ -233,6 +234,9 @@
     parser.add_option(
         '-c', '--cache_master', action='store_true', dest='cache_master',
         default=False,  help="""Set to true to attempt use local cached copy of the master template.""")
+    parser.add_option(
+        '-f', '--force', action='store_true', dest='force_verification',
+        default=False, help="""Set to true to skip the sha_1 check and force template verification.""")
 
     options, args = parser.parse_args(sysargs)
 
@@ -269,8 +273,18 @@
         print "current:", current_filename
         current_url = 'file://%s' % current_filename
 
-    # retrieve the contents of the local template and check for syntax
+    # retrieve the contents of the local template
     current = fetch(current_url)
+    hexdigest = hashlib.sha1(current).hexdigest()
+    if not options.force_verification:
+        # Early exist if the template hasn't changed.
+        sha_url = "%s.sha1" % current_url
+        current_sha = fetch(sha_url)
+        if hexdigest == current_sha:
+            print "Message template SHA_1 has not changed."
+            sys.exit(0)
+
+    # and check for syntax
     current_parsed = llmessage.parseTemplateString(current)
 
     if options.cache_master:
@@ -301,6 +315,12 @@
 
     if acceptable:
         explain("--- PASS ---", compat)
+        if options.force_verification == False:
+            print "Updating sha1 to %s" % hexdigest
+            sha_filename = "%s.sha1" % current_filename
+            sha_file = open(sha_filename, 'w')
+            sha_file.write(hexdigest)
+            sha_file.close()
     else:
         explain("*** FAIL ***", compat)
         return 1