Re: md5sum results with V5.2.1 and V5.97 differ

[Matthew Woehlke]

Aparna Rallabandi wrote:
> I have a dev box where there is version 5.2.1 of md5sum. The result 
> of md5sum --string on a string say "654321" is different from that of
> "echo \"654321\" | md5sum --text".

Of course it is. One of those ends with a '\n'.

Also, the way you quoted above is confusing. It looks like you did:
$ echo \"654321\"
(i.e. included the quotes as part of what was echoed)

> My test box has md5sum version 5.97 where --string option is not 
> supported. So i use the "echo \"654321\" | md5sum --text".
>
> Is there any way i can get the results of "md5sum --string 
> \"654321\"" with the version 5.97 of md5sum (or) is this a bug?

printf "654321" | md5sum --text should be equivalent (at least, I get 
the same result as you posted). Note however that 5.2.1 is *ancient*; 
5.97 is already (IIRC) several years old, and 6.12 is current.

Basically, you need to feed the string to md5sum in some manner that 
does not add a '\n'.

--
Matthew
"Who wants to sing?" -- Orcs (Warcraft II)