Reference

sum(1)

checksum and count the blocks in a file

NAME

sum - checksum and count the blocks in a file

SYNOPSIS

sum [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

Print or check BSD (16-bit) checksums. Legacy interface to the cksum(1) utility.

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

-r

use BSD sum algorithm (the default), use 1K blocks

-s, --sysv

use System V sum algorithm, use 512 bytes blocks

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

AUTHOR

Written by Kayvan Aghaiepour and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: <[email protected]>.
Report any translation bugs to: <https://translationproject.org/team/>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2026 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/sum>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) sum invocation'

History