8.18 Why does the 10.x/11.x cksum command produce a different checksum than the 9.x cksum command?

Updated: 04/05/01

The 9.x cksum was defective - it did not correctly implement the POSIX
spec.  That is understandable, because the POSIX cksum spec does not
supply a test suite to easily verify an implementation is correct.

The 10.x/11.x cksum is correct.  Unfortunately that means it can not
match 9.x cksum.

Another implementation that did not match POSIX spec was in AIX 3.*; I
haven't checked AIX 4.* or Solaris.

Other good implementations (they give the same answer as 10.x/11.x cksum):
  - GNU cksum
  - Solaris 7/8
  - HP Software Distributor swpackage program, on both 9.x and 10.x

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Last Update October 22 2009 @ 05:25 AM