checksum

Give checksum a file path and it calculates the selected file’s MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, or SHA-512 digest for inspection at the command line. The program accepts the path through its required file option or directly as a positional argument, and it handles both relative and absolute Windows paths.

It can also test a file against an existing signature supplied through the check option, with uppercase and lowercase letters treated as equivalent during comparison. A match returns exit code 0, while a mismatch returns a non-zero code that scripts can use to branch, report an error, or stop a workflow.

This makes checksum useful to developers, administrators, and other command-line users verifying artifacts or incorporating file validation into batch jobs and automation. Help options describe the available commands and arguments, keeping its operation discoverable without a graphical interface.

checksum is a Windows System Tools utility published by Rob Reynolds, distributed as freeware, and its current version is 0.3.1. It is intended for Windows command-line environments, so users should be comfortable supplying paths and interpreting command results rather than expecting a desktop window.