Generating a SHA-256 hash from the Linux command line

Asked 2010-07-28T23:41:05.637

404

I know the string "foobar" generates the SHA-256 hash c3ab8ff13720e8ad9047dd39466b3c8974e592c2fa383d4a3960714caef0c4f2 using http://hash.online-convert.com/sha256-generator

However the command line shell:

hendry@x201 ~$ echo foobar | sha256sum
aec070645fe53ee3b3763059376134f058cc337247c978add178b6ccdfb0019f  -

Generates a different hash. What am I missing?

linux shell sha256

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2 Answers

624

echo will normally output a newline, which is suppressed with -n. Try this:

echo -n foobar | sha256sum

answered 2010-07-28T23:43:12.370

echo produces a trailing newline character which is hashed too. Try:

/bin/echo -n foobar | sha256sum

answered 2010-07-28T23:44:54.177