md5sum

Compute or verify MD5 checksums

low risk

interactive breakdown — edit the command and press Explain

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⚠ Risks & cautions

MD5 collisions can be forged — never rely on it to authenticate downloads; use sha256sum.

What it does

Prints MD5 digests. Fine for accidental corruption checks, not for security.

Common flags

Flag	Meaning
`-c`	Verify against a checksum file

Examples

md5sum file.isoPrint the digest · explain & risk-check →

Related

Open the full explainer →More in Files & Archives

Reference text is hand-written and may be incomplete — check man md5sum for your version. Test destructive commands on a non-production system first.