sha2 utilities: Print or check SHA-2 digests

[rmyster]

On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 11:27 +0200, Qed wrote:
> >>        --print-md algo [files]
> >>        --print-mds [files]
> >>               Print message digest of algorithm ALGO for all  given files  or
> >>               stdin.   With  the  second  form  (or  a deprecated "*" as algo)
> >>               digests for all available algorithms are printed.
> > 
> > Oh.......I never would have made the connection.  I can see what it
> > refers to now but when I read it, the algorithm "ALGO" was one I had
> > never heard of.  Realistically, I wouldn't have caught it even if it was
> > written as   "--print-md <algorithm> [files]" 
> Ever heard of the funny story about the user calling helpdesk because
> cannot find the "any key" on his keyboard? ;-)

Yes, and supposedly it's causing problems for support departments.   On
the other hand, if you're looking for the command to calculate sha256
and sha512 hashes, what are the odds you will be targeting words like
"ALGO"?  "HASH" maybe, but "algo"?  I'd be curious as to how many users
even know that gpg can do sha256 and sha512 hashes based on what is
written in the docs.  MD5SUM and SHA1SUM are spelled out as clear as day
in contrast to the ones I was trying to use.  I had been using other
applications to get the values.  

Still, does anyone know what the coreutils docs are referring to when it
implies that sha512 hashes can be obtained with a command called
"sha512sum" in the same manner of usage as md5sum and sha1sum?
(i.e "sha512sum file")