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CKSUM(1) User Commands CKSUM(1)

NAME

cksum - compute and verify file checksums

SYNOPSIS

cksum [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

Print or verify checksums. By default use the 32 bit CRC algorithm.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

select the digest type to use. See DIGEST below
emit base64-encoded digests, not hexadecimal
read checksums from the FILEs and check them
digest length in bits; must not exceed the max size and must be a multiple of 8 for blake2b; must be 224, 256, 384, or 512 for sha2 or sha3
emit a raw binary digest, not hexadecimal
create a BSD-style checksum (the default)
create a reversed style checksum, without digest type
end each output line with NUL, not newline, and disable file name escaping

The following five options are useful only when verifying checksums:

don't fail or report status for missing files
don't print OK for each successfully verified file
don't output anything, status code shows success
exit non-zero for improperly formatted checksum lines
warn about improperly formatted checksum lines
indicate which implementation used
display this help and exit
output version information and exit

DIGEST determines the digest algorithm and default output format:

(equivalent to sum -s)
(equivalent to sum -r)
(equivalent to cksum)
(only available through cksum)
(equivalent to md5sum)
(equivalent to sha1sum)
(equivalent to sha{224,256,384,512}sum)
(only available through cksum)
(equivalent to b2sum)
(only available through cksum)

When checking, the input should be a former output of this program, or equivalent standalone program.

AUTHOR

Written by Padraig Brady and Q. Frank Xia.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/cksum>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) cksum invocation'

September 2025 GNU coreutils 9.8