hash-cli

README

hash-cli

A fast command-line utility for computing file hashes using multiple algorithms simultaneously.

Features

• Multi-algorithm support – Calculate checksums using various hashing algorithms in a single pass
• Batch processing – Hash multiple files and directories in one command
• Recursive support – Use the -r flag to traverse directories recursively
• Progress indicator – Visual progress bar for large files (>100 MB)
• Efficient – Uses parallel multi-writer approach to compute multiple hashes without re-reading the file

Supported Algorithms

Algorithm	Flag
Blake3	--blake3
CRC32	--crc32
MD5	--md5
SHA-256	--sha256
SHA-3 (224-bit)	--sha3-224
SHA-3 (256-bit)	--sha3-256
SHA-3 (384-bit)	--sha3-384
SHA-3 (512-bit)	--sha3-512
XXHash	--xxhash

Note: MD5 and CRC32 are included for compatibility and fast checksums only — do not use them for cryptographic security.

Installation

Prerequisites:

• Go 1.25 or newer
• A supported OS (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Option 1 — Build from source (recommended during development):

git clone https://github.com/marinewater/hash-cli
cd hash-cli
go build -o hash-cli .

Option 2 — Install into your $GOBIN from the project folder:

cd hash-cli
go install ./...

This will place the hash-cli binary into your $GOBIN (usually $GOPATH/bin), which should be on your PATH.

Usage

hash-cli [flags] FILE [FILE ...]

Flags:

• --blake3 Compute BLAKE3
• --crc32 Compute CRC32
• --md5 Compute MD5
• --sha256 Compute SHA-256
• --sha3-224 Compute SHA3-224
• --sha3-256 Compute SHA3-256
• --sha3-384 Compute SHA3-384
• --sha3-512 Compute SHA3-512
• --xxhash Compute XXHash
• -r, --recursive Recursive directory traversal
• -U, --uppercase Print hashes in uppercase hex

Notes:

• You can pass multiple files or directories; each is processed in turn.
• A progress bar is shown for files larger than 100 MiB.
• Use the -r flag to process directories recursively.

Examples

• Compute BLAKE3 and SHA-256 for a single file:

hash-cli --blake3 --sha256 ./test.txt

• Compute multiple algorithms for multiple files, uppercase output:

hash-cli --md5 --sha3-256 --xxhash -U file1.bin file2.iso

• Compute multiple algorithms for all files in a directory:

hash-cli --md5 --sha3-256 --xxhash -r ./data

• Compute SHA256 from Stdin:

cat file1.bin | hash-cli --sha256

Output format

For each file, the tool prints a header with the file name and size, followed by a table of hash names and values (hex):

Hashes for test.txt (12.0 KiB):
Name    Hash
Blake3  9a03a7...
md5     098f6b...
sha256  a9489b...

When -U/--uppercase is used, the hex values are printed in uppercase.

How it works (performance)

Internally, hash-cli fans out the file stream to multiple hashers via a multi-writer, so the file data is read only once while multiple digests are computed in parallel. This significantly reduces I/O overhead when you need several algorithms at once.

Exit codes

• 0 on success
• Non-zero if a file cannot be opened or an error occurs during hashing

Development

• Run tests:

go test ./...

Documentation

Overview

Package main provides the entry point for the hash-cli application.