md5sum — compute and check MD5 message digest
Examples (TL;DR)
-
Calculate the MD5 checksum for a file:
md5sum filename1 -
Calculate MD5 checksums for multiple files:
md5sum filename1 filename2 -
Read a file of MD5SUMs and verify all files have matching checksums:
md5sum -c filename.md5
Synopsis
md5sum [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Description
Print or check MD5 (128-bit) checksums.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
- -b, --binary
read in binary mode
- -c, --check
read MD5 sums from the FILEs and check them
- --tag
create a BSD-style checksum
- -t, --text
read in text mode (default)
- -z, --zero
end each output line with NUL, not newline, and disable file name escaping
The following five options are useful only when verifying checksums
- --ignore-missing
don't fail or report status for missing files
- --quiet
don't print OK for each successfully verified file
- --status
don't output anything, status code shows success
- --strict
exit non-zero for improperly formatted checksum lines
- -w, --warn
warn about improperly formatted checksum lines
- --help
display this help and exit
- --version
output version information and exit
The sums are computed as described in RFC 1321. When checking, the input should be a former output of this program. The default mode is to print a line with checksum, a space, a character indicating input mode ('*' for binary, ' ' for text or where binary is insignificant), and name for each FILE.
Note: There is no difference between binary mode and text mode on GNU systems.
Bugs
Do not use the MD5 algorithm for security related purposes. Instead, use an SHA-2 algorithm, implemented in the programs sha224sum(1), sha256sum(1), sha384sum(1), sha512sum(1), or the BLAKE2 algorithm, implemented in b2sum(1)
Reporting Bugs
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 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/md5sum>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) md5sum invocation'
Referenced By
changestool(1), cksfv(1), debsign(1), fdupes(1), guestfish(1), guestfs(3), mcookie(1), monit(1), perl5140delta(1), pmldigital(1), qtermy-pipe(1), rdfind(1), rhash(1), xorriso(1), xorrisofs(1), xxhsum(1).