Reference client understands salt input as a Hex String. This is NOT clear from the docs

[abr@pc596 bitrepository-client-1.9-RC1]$ ./bin/bitmag.sh put-file -h
Takes the following arguments:
-s The path to the directory with the settings files for the client
-k The path to the file containing the private key.
-v Makes the client more verbose
-c The id for the collection to perform the operation on.
-i The id for the file to perform the operation on.
-p [OPTIONAL] The id of the pillar where the operation should be performed. If undefined the operation is performed on all pillars.
-f The path to the file, which needs to be  uploaded. Is required, unless a URL is given.
-u The URL for the file to be put. Is required, unless the actual file is given.
-C The checksum for the file to be retrieved. Required if using an URL.
-R [OPTIONAL] The algorithm of checksum to request in the response from the pillars.
-S [OPTIONAL] The salt of checksum to request in the response. Requires the ChecksumType argument.
-d If this argument is present, then the file will be removed from the server, when the operation is complete.
Missing argument: Unrecognized option: -h