Re: Bug#164889: md5sum <FILE produces spurious ` -' in output
> * Compatibility with the historical behaviour of md5sum is more
> important than compatibility with the GNU textutils version.
Rather than Debian shipping its own md5sum, why not just rely on the GNU
textutils md5sum(1) in coreutils or one of the not-yet-packaged md5(1)
utilities from *BSD, depending on whether or not one wants the '-' in
output?
Historical precedence aside, it seems to me that third-party scripts
invoking md5sum will probably want the GNU behavior, and those invoking
md5 will want the BSD behavior.
The time for changing GNU md5sum's behavior has long passed.
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