diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 5be209ff..c3b6cafb 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ debian-cd (3.1.6) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     Closes: #622622
   * update the URL for downloading i386 d-i dailies.
   * update the URL for downloading armel d-i dailies.
+  * tools/grab_md5: Improve Packages and Sources file parsing; cope with
+    differently-formed files that are still valid (don't assume field
+    ordering). Switch from awk to perl makes things much faster too!
 
   [ Aurelien Jarno ]
   * Add support for hurd-i386. Closes: #619211
diff --git a/tools/grab_md5 b/tools/grab_md5
index d4b8cf10..ac8b4621 100755
--- a/tools/grab_md5
+++ b/tools/grab_md5
@@ -24,46 +24,55 @@ do
             FILES=`find $LOCATIONS -name Sources.gz`
             echo "Using MD5 sums from Sources files:"
             echo $FILES
-            zcat -f $FILES | awk -v MIRROR=$MIRROR '
-                /^Directory:/      {
-                                    DIR = $2
-                                    next
-                                }
-                /^Files:/       {
-                                    in_files = 1
-                                    next
-                                }
-                /^ /            {
-                                    if (in_files) { 
-                                        gsub("^ ", "", $0)
-                                        MD5 = $1
-                                                                           SIZE = $2
-                                        FILE = $3
-                                        printf("%s  %12s  %s/%s/%s\n", MD5, SIZE, MIRROR, DIR, FILE);
-                                        next
-                                    }
-                                }
-                /^[^ ]/            {
-                                        in_files = 0
-                                        FILE = ""
-                                        DIR = ""
-                                }' | sort | uniq >> $OUT
+            zcat -f $FILES | MIRROR=$MIRROR perl -ne '
+                chomp;
+                my %files;
+                my $dir;
+                my $mirror = $ENV{"MIRROR"};
+                my $filename;
+                while (<>) {
+                    if (m/^ ([[:xdigit:]]{32}) (\d+) (\S+)/sg) {
+                        $files{$3}{"md5"} = $1;
+                        $files{$3}{"size"} = $2;
+                    }
+                    if (m/^Directory: (\S+)/sg) {
+                        $dir = $1;
+                    }
+                    if (m/^$/) {
+                        for $filename (keys %files) {
+                            printf("%s  %12s  %s/%s/%s\n",
+                                $files{$filename}{"md5"},
+                                $files{$filename}{"size"},
+                                $mirror, $dir, $filename);
+                        }
+                        undef %files;
+                    }
+                }' | sort | uniq >> $OUT
             ;;
         alpha|amd64|arm|armel|hppa|i386|ia64|m68k|mips|mipsel|powerpc|s390|sparc|kfreebsd-amd64|kfreebsd-i386|hurd-i386)
             FILES=`find $LOCATIONS -name Packages.gz | grep binary-$ARCH`
             echo "Using MD5 sums from Packages files:"
             echo $FILES
-            zcat -f $FILES | awk -v MIRROR=$MIRROR '
-                /^Filename:/    {
-                                    FILE = $2
-                                }
-                /^Size:/        {
-                                    SIZE = $2
-                                }
-                /^MD5sum:/      {
-                                    MD5 = $2
-                                    printf("%s  %12d  %s/%s\n", MD5, SIZE, MIRROR, FILE)
-                                }' | sort | uniq >> $OUT
+            zcat -f $FILES | MIRROR=$MIRROR perl -ne '
+                chomp;
+                my $mirror = $ENV{"MIRROR"};
+                my $filename;
+                my $size;
+                my $md5;
+                while (<>) {
+                    if (m/^Filename: (\S+)/sg) {
+                        $filename = $1;
+                    }
+                    if (m/^Size: (\S+)/sg) {
+                        $size = $1;
+                    }
+                    if (m/^MD5sum: (\S+)/sg) {
+                        $md5 = $1;
+                    }
+                    if (m/^$/) {
+                        printf("%s  %12s  %s/%s\n", $md5, $size, $mirror, $filename);
+                    }
+                }' | sort | uniq >> $OUT
             # Use the new D-I images. Do NOT use the "current"
             # link; it causes problems with overlaid files...
             for VER in $MIRROR/dists/$DI_CODENAME/main/installer-$ARCH/*