SUM

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

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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 utility.

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#su-r'-rX'tty: link'

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#su-s'-s, --sysvX'tty: link'

use System V sum algorithm, use 512 bytes blocks

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sum#su-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sum#su-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

AUTHOR

Written by Kayvan Aghaiepour and David MacKenzie.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

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

SEE ALSO

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sum>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) sum invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
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.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO