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CKSUM(1)

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NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     cksum, sum - display file checksums and block counts

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     cksum [-p | -t | -x | -c [checklist ...] | -s string |  file
...]
           [-a algorithm] [-o 1 | 2]
     sum [file ...]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The  cksum  utility  writes  to the standard output a single
line for each
     input file.  The format of this line varies with  the  algorithm being used
     as follows:

     cksum    The  output line consists of three whitespace separated fields: a
             CRC checksum, the number of octets in the input, and
name of the
             file  or  string.  If no file name is specified, the
standard input
             is used and no file name is written.

     sum     The output line consists of three  whitespace  separated fields: a
             CRC  checksum, the number of kilobytes in the input,
and name of
             the file or string.  If no file name  is  specified,
the standard
             input is used and no file name is written.

     sysvsum
             The  output  line consists of three whitespace separated fields: a
             CRC checksum, the number of 512-byte blocks  in  the
input, and
             name  of  the  file  or  string.  If no file name is
specified, the
             standard input is used and no file name is  written.

     all others
             The output line consists of four whitespace separated fields: the
             name of the algorithm used, the name of the file  or
string in
             parentheses,  an  equals sign, and the cryptographic
hash of the
             input.  If no file name is specified,  the  standard
input is used
             and only the cryptographic hash is output.

     The  sum  utility  is identical to the cksum utility, except
that it defaults
 to using historic algorithm 1,  as  described  below.
It is provided
     for compatibility only.

     The options are as follows:

     -a algorithm
             Use  the  specified algorithm instead of the default
(cksum).  Supported
 algorithms include cksum, md4,  md5,  rmd160,
sha1, sha256,
             sha384, sha512, sum, and sysvsum.  Algorithms specified by the -a
             option are case-insensitive.

     -c [checklist ...]
             Compares  all  checksums  contained  in   the   file
checklist with newly
             computed  checksums  for  the  corresponding  files.
Output consists
             of the digest used, the file  name,  and  an  OK  or
FAILED for the
             result of the comparison.  This will validate any of
the supported
 checksums.  If no file is given, stdin is used.

     -o 1 | 2
             Use historic algorithms instead  of  the  (superior)
default one
             (see below).

     -p       Echoes  stdin to stdout and appends the checksum to
stdout.

     -s string
             Prints a checksum of the given string.

     -t      Runs a built-in time trial.

     -x      Runs a built-in test script.

     Algorithm 1 (aka sum) is the algorithm used by historic  BSD
systems as
     the sum algorithm and by historic AT&T System V UNIX systems
as the sum
     algorithm when using the -r option.  This is a 16-bit checksum, with a
     right  rotation before each addition; overflow is discarded.

     Algorithm 2 (aka sysvsum) is the algorithm used by  historic
AT&T System V
     UNIX systems as the default sum algorithm.  This is a 32-bit
checksum,
     and is defined as follows:

           s = sum of all bytes;
           r = s % 2^16 + (s % 2^32) / 2^16;
           cksum = (r % 2^16) + r / 2^16;

     Both algorithm 1 and 2 write to the standard output the same
fields as
     the  default  algorithm, except that the size of the file in
bytes is replaced
 with the size of the file in  blocks.   For  historic
reasons, the
     block  size is 1024 for algorithm 1 and 512 for algorithm 2.
Partial
     blocks are rounded up.

     The default CRC used is based on the polynomial used for CRC
error checking
  in  the networking standard ISO 8802-3: 1989 .  The CRC
checksum encoding
 is defined by the generating polynomial:

           G(x) = x^32 + x^26 + x^23 + x^22 + x^16 + x^12 +
                x^11 + x^10 + x^8 + x^7 + x^5 + x^4 + x^2 + x + 1

     Mathematically,  the CRC value corresponding to a given file
is defined by
     the following procedure:

           The n bits to be evaluated are considered  to  be  the
coefficients of
           a  mod  2 polynomial M(x) of degree n-1.  These n bits
are the bits
           from the file, with the most significant bit being the
most significant
  bit of the first octet of the file and the last
bit being the
           least significant bit of the last octet,  padded  with
zero bits (if
           necessary)  to  achieve  an integral number of octets,
followed by one
           or more octets representing the length of the file  as
a binary value,
  least significant octet first.  The smallest number of octets
           capable of representing this integer are used.

           M(x) is multiplied by  x^32  (i.e.,  shifted  left  32
bits) and divided
           by  G(x)  using  mod 2 division, producing a remainder
R(x) of degree
           <= 31.

           The coefficients of R(x) are considered to be a 32-bit
sequence.

           The bit sequence is complemented and the result is the
CRC.

     The other available algorithms are described  in  their  respective man
     pages in section 3 of the manual.

DIAGNOSTICS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The  cksum  and  sum utilities exit 0 on success or >0 if an
error occurred.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

      
      
     md5(1), rmd160(1), sha1(1)

     The default calculation is identical to that given in  pseudo-code in the
     following ACM article:

     Dilip  V.  Sarwate, "Computation of Cyclic Redundancy Checks
Via Table
     Lookup", Communications of the ACM, August 1988.

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The cksum utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.2-1992
     (``POSIX.2'') specification.

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     A  sum  command  appeared in Version 2 AT&T UNIX.  The cksum
utility appeared
 in 4.4BSD.

WARNING    [Toc]    [Back]

     Do not use the cksum, md4, sum, or sysvsum algorithms to detect hostile
     binary  modifications.   An  attacker  can trivially produce
backdoored daemons
 which have the same checksum as the standard  versions.
Use a cryptographic-strength
 checksum (such as MD5) instead.

OpenBSD      3.6                          April      30,     2004
[ Back ]
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