Linux / Unix Command: md5sum

Command Library

NAME

md5sum (compute and check MD5 message digest)

SYNOPSIS

md5sum [-bhtvV] [-c file] [-s[string]] [--binary] [--check=file] [--help] [--string[=string]] [--text] [--verbose] [--version] [file...]

DESCRIPTION

md5sum produces for each input file an 128-bit "finger-print" or "message-digest" or it can check with the output of a former run whether the message digests are still the same.

OPTIONS

-b, --binary
Treat all input files as binary. This normally does not make any difference on UN*X systems but some systems have a different internal and external representation of texts (especially the end-of-line characters).

-c, --check=file
file should be the output of a former run of md5sum. The file has in each line the MD5 sum, a binary/text flag, and a file name. This file will be opened (with each possible relative path) and the message digest is computed. If it is not the same as given in this line it will be marked as failed.

-h --help
Print an usage message and exit.

-s, --string=string
Instead of computing the message digest for a file compute it for the given string. The result is the same as for a file with contains exactly this string.

-t, --text
Treat all input files as text files. This is the reverse option to --binary.

-v, --verbose
Verbosely write information about the process.

-V, --version
Print version information on standard output then exit.

EXAMPLE

% md5sum tetris.tar

Computes the md5 checksum for file tetris.tar.

Important: Use the man command (% man) to see how a command is used on your particular computer.

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>> Also see Shell Command Library