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sha256sum — Calculate SHA256 cryptographic checksums. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the sha256sum command: Calculate SHA256 cryptographic checksums. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/sha2-utilities.html>.

Solution

sha256sum — Calculate SHA256 cryptographic checksums. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/sha2-utilities.html>.

Calculate the SHA256 checksum for one or more files:

sha256sum {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Calculate and save the list of SHA256 checksums to a file:

sha256sum {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}} > {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Calculate a SHA256 checksum from stdin:

{{command}} | sha256sum

Read a file of SHA256 checksums and filenames and verify all files have matching checksums:

sha256sum {{[-c|--check]}} {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Only show a message for missing files or when verification fails:

sha256sum {{[-c|--check]}} --quiet {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Only show a message when verification fails, ignoring missing files:

sha256sum --ignore-missing {{[-c|--check]}} --quiet {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Check a known SHA256 checksum of a file:

echo {{known_sha256_checksum_of_the_file}} {{path/to/file}} | sha256sum {{[-c|--check]}}

Code Snippets

Calculate the SHA256 checksum for one or more files

sha256sum {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}}

Calculate and save the list of SHA256 checksums to a file

sha256sum {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}} > {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Calculate a SHA256 checksum from `stdin`

{{command}} | sha256sum

Read a file of SHA256 checksums and filenames and verify all files have matching checksums

sha256sum {{[-c|--check]}} {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Only show a message for missing files or when verification fails

sha256sum {{[-c|--check]}} --quiet {{path/to/file.sha256}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/sha256sum

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