How do you check md5 checksums? Topic is solved

[viking60]

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md5sum <file_to_check>

Is the classic way. There must be some easier way to do this. How do you do it? I am lazy and looking for something fool proof?
Apps to recommend? Integration with Dolphin or Nautilus?

[jkerr82508]

What could be easier than:
md5sum -c file.md5

where file.md5 is the file containing the md5sum

Jim

[rolf]

Be aware that the md5sum file has to comply with a specific format. IOW, I have used the file provided with certain downloads, it did not come in the proper format, so I needed to `md5sum` the download and `cat` the md5sum file.

Sometimes, the md5sum hash is displayed at the download site in the browser. I have dragged the mouse over that hash, gone to konsole, where I have already cd'ed to the directory with the download and

echo <middle-click>
Enter

That puts the hash at the beginning of the line. Then

md5sum <download>
Enter

After some wheels grinding, the result is printed, starting at the beginning of the line just below, making comparison fairly easy.

But really, are we going for the Guinness Book of World Records on "lazy" here?

P(ost).S(miley). The manual seems to provide what is the proper format, in case you ever want to make a text file that md5sum -c will understand:

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The  sums  are  computed  as described in RFC 1321.  When checking, the input should be a former output of
       this program.  The default mode is to print a line with checksum, a character  indicating  type  (`*'  for
       binary, ` ' for text), and name for each FILE.


[viking60]

Thanks guys I am confused at a much higher level now! I will do it like you gurus suggest.
It was this that triggered the question:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/ ... ent=129309

[dedanna1029]

I'm with Jim on this one. I use just "md5sum" on the file itself, "md5sum -c" on the burned cd of the file. Then just cat the md5sum file & see if they match.