DH_MD5SUMS(1)

💖 dh_md5sums — the Debhelper manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so boom: this is dh_md5sums, straight outta the Debhelper manual. Sit down, grab a boba, we're gonna make a checksum file together and it's gonna be so cute.

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✨ NAME ✨

dh_md5sums — generate DEBIAN/md5sums file 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dh_md5sums [debhelper options] [-x] [-Xitem] [--include-conffiles]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So dh_md5sums is a debhelper program, and its whole entire job — its main character purpose, its Roman Empire — is generating a DEBIAN/md5sums file. And what's in that file? The md5sums of each file in the package, one per file. That's it. That's the gig. 💅

These files are the ones dpkg --verify uses, and the debsums(1) program uses them too. So like, they matter, they're not just decorative.

Now for the plot twist 🫣: all files in DEBIAN/ are omitted from the md5sums file. Gone. Not invited. And all conffiles are omitted too — unless you use the --include-conffiles switch, in which case they get to come to the party after all.

And the glow-up at the end: the md5sums file gets installed with proper permissions and ownerships. Grown-up, responsible, hydrated, has a skincare routine. ✨

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -Xitem, --exclude=item — Exclude files that contain item anywhere in their filename from being listed in the md5sums file. Anywhere, bestie — doesn't matter if it's the start, middle or end of the name, if item is in there, it is not getting listed. 🙈

ngl you'll also spot -x and --include-conffiles sitting in the synopsis up there — --include-conffiles is the one keeping conffiles in the list, and -x is chilling right alongside it. 🫶

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• debhelper(7)

This program is a part of debhelper. 🧚

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>

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🌈 that's the whole page, periodt. no cap, every flag, file, and footnote made it in — not me being thorough and adorable at the same time. 💖

stay checksummed and slay, angel 🎀🦋

14.5ubuntu1 · 2026-09-21 · DH_MD5SUMS(1) — yeah that's the version, the date, and the manual section, signed off with a kiss 💋