md5sum flags & options

Basic usage

Compute the MD5 hash of a file.

md5sum file.iso

Multiple files

Hash multiple files at once.

md5sum *.tar.gz

-c, --check

Verify files against a checksum file.

md5sum -c checksums.md5

--quiet

Only show failures when checking (suppress "OK" lines).

md5sum -c --quiet checksums.md5

--status

Silent check — don't output anything, just set exit code.

md5sum -c --status checksums.md5 && echo "All OK"

-b, --binary

Read files in binary mode (matters on Windows).

md5sum -b file.bin

--tag

Output in BSD-style format.

md5sum --tag file.iso

Generate a checksum file

Redirect output to create a checksum file for later verification.

md5sum *.iso > checksums.md5

Pipe from stdin

Hash data from a pipe.

echo -n "hello" | md5sum