uutils / uutils/coreutils

md5sum exits when a directory is passed as argument

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Rust
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Description

I am using the new coreutils on ubuntu 25.10
When running 'md5sum *' in a directory that has directories and files, md5sum exits when it encounters a directory without calculating the md5 of all files that follow.
The gnu version of md5sum is just printing a message and continues calculating checksums.

For example:

  /tmp/test 
❯ ls -al
total 12
drwxrwxr-x  3 user  120 Oct 15 13:53 .
drwxrwxrwt 52 root  1340 Oct 15 13:52 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 user    9 Oct 15 13:52 file1
-rw-rw-r--  1 user    9 Oct 15 13:52 file2
drwxrwxr-x  2 user   40 Oct 15 13:52 test
-rw-rw-r--  1 user    8 Oct 15 13:53 ufile1

  /tmp/test 
❯ md5sum *
d23ad13e4add7dc2ed0a5cf26e4a3735  file1
ec3f5bae3241bca96a10696f2412bb7f  file2
md5sum: failed to read input: Is a directory

  /tmp/test
❯ gnumd5sum *
d23ad13e4add7dc2ed0a5cf26e4a3735  file1
ec3f5bae3241bca96a10696f2412bb7f  file2
gnumd5sum: test: Is a directory
ba24d6e16402dc864b85fc24069d1d09  ufile1

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Research direction

Reproduce the issue by running md5sum * in a directory containing regular files and a subdirectory, then compare the behavior with GNU md5sum. Trace the command's handling of directory input; done means it reports the directory error, continues processing later files, and produces their checksums.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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