---
layout: page
category-title: Intermediate commands
category-page: intermediate
tags: sha sums check
author: Gianmarco De Vita
title: shasum
previous-page: pages/cmd/interm/
next-page: pages/cmd/interm/
---

With <code>shasum</code> command you can work with SHA Checksums.

<pre>
shasum [flag] [file]
</pre>

<h3>Store the Checksum</h3>

You can store the output in a file by adding to the command line the string
output symbol "&gt;" and then the path and the name of the file.<br>

<h3>Define the algorithm</h3>

The flag <code>-a</code> allows you to choose which algorithm to use when
defining the checksum of a file. The default algorithm is 1.

<pre>
shasum -a algorithm file
</pre>

<h3>Read in binary mode</h3>

The flag <code>-b</code> allows you to read files in binary mode.

<pre>
shasum -b file.bin
</pre>

<h3>Check two SHA sums</h3>

You can verify wheter two checksums belong to the same file or not (and so
define wheter the two files are the same thing) wit the flag <code>-c</code>.
After storing the Checksums into two files (let say file1 and file2),
you can write to command as follows:

<pre>
shasum -c shaSum1 shaSum2
</pre>

<h3>Display help</h3>

Writing the command followed by the <code>-h</code> h flag will display a little
help paragraph with the main functions of this command.

<pre>
shasum -h
</pre>