cksum by default prints the POSIX standard CRC checksum
for each file along with the number of bytes in the file,
and the file name unless no arguments were given.
The 32-bit CRC used is based on the polynomial used
for CRC error checking in the ISO/IEC 8802-3:1996 standard (Ethernet).
Similar output formats are used for the other legacy checksums
selectable with --algorithm=sysv or --algorithm=bsd,
detailed at sum: Print checksum and block counts.
With the --algorithm option selecting non legacy checksums,
the cksum command defaults to output of the form:
digest_name (file name) = digest
The standalone checksum utilities can select this output mode by using the --tag option.
With the --untagged option and the --algorithm option selecting non legacy checksums, the following output format is used. This is the default output format of the standalone checksum utilities. For each file, we print the checksum, a space, a flag indicating binary or text input mode, and the file name. Binary mode is indicated with ‘*’, text mode with ‘ ’ (space). Binary mode is the default on systems where it’s significant, otherwise text mode is the default.
Without --zero, and with non legacy output formats, if file contains a backslash, newline, or carriage return, the line is started with a backslash, and each problematic character in the file name is escaped with a backslash, making the output unambiguous even in the presence of arbitrary file names. Since the backslash character itself is escaped, any other backslash escape sequences are reserved for future use.