SUM(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 28 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 SUM(1) — the checksum bestie 💖

ok so like. it's sum, it lives in the User Commands section of the manual, and it's here to checksum and count the blocks in a file. slay.

✨ NAME ✨

sum — checksum and count the blocks in a file

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

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

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ok bestie so here's the vibe: sum prints or checks BSD (16-bit) checksums. it's the legacy interface to the cksum(1) utility, like it's the older sibling who paved the way and now just chills 💅

and if you give it no FILE, or if FILE is -? it reads from standard input. classic. very main character of it.

here are the options, and yes there are only four, we're keeping it minimal:

  • -r — use the BSD sum algorithm (this is the default, btw, so it's giving "I'm already on"), and it uses 1K blocks
  • -s, --sysv — use the System V sum algorithm instead, and it uses 512 bytes blocks
  • --help — display this help and exit 🫶
  • --version — output version information and exit ⭐
no cap: -r is the default, so if you don't say anything, you're getting BSD and 1K blocks. periodt.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Kayvan Aghaiepour and David MacKenzie. icons, honestly.

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? not the vibe, but okay, tell the people:

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 🌈

ok that's the whole page, you ate it 💅 this was GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — and that's SUM(1), signing off, ily, go checksum something 🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from