bug in sha1sum

[Dave Hines]

I have just been looking at the man page for sha1sum, and saw the options:

       -b, --binary
              read in binary mode

       -t, --text
              read in text mode (default)

There is no further explanation of what these options mean. I assume
that binary mode means to read the file as it is, and report the
checksum, and that reading in text mode will perform some unspecified
transformation of the file before computing the sum.

This would seem to be a bug. If I type "sha1sum filename" I want
the checksum of the named file, not the checksum of some unspecified
transformation of the file.

To add this as an option may be acceptable, if the transformation is
specified, common and useful, but under no circumstances should giving
a checksum of something other than the file be the default action.

Regards -- Dave Hines.