(coreutils.info)cksum invocation

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6.3 ‘cksum’: Print CRC checksum and byte counts
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‘cksum’ computes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checksum for each given
FILE, or standard input if none are given or for a FILE of ‘-’.
Synopsis:

     cksum [OPTION]... [FILE]...

   ‘cksum’ prints the CRC checksum for each file along with the number
of bytes in the file, and the file name unless no arguments were given.

   ‘cksum’ is typically used to ensure that files transferred by
unreliable means (e.g., netnews) have not been corrupted, by comparing
the ‘cksum’ output for the received files with the ‘cksum’ output for
the original files (typically given in the distribution).

   The CRC algorithm is specified by the POSIX standard.  It is not
compatible with the BSD or System V ‘sum’ algorithms (see the previous
section); it is more robust.

   The only options are ‘--help’ and ‘--version’.  Note: Common
options.

   An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value
indicates failure.