Read file names and checksum information (not data) from each
@var{file} (or from standard input if no @var{file} was specified) and report
whether the checksums match the contents of the named files.
-The input to this mode is usually the output of
-a prior, checksum-generating run of the command.
-
-Three input formats are supported. Either the default output
-format described above, the @option{--tag} output format,
-or the BSD reversed mode format which is similar to the default mode,
+The input to this mode is usually the output of a prior,
+checksum-generating run of the command. However the
+@command{cksum} command does not support @option{--check}
+with the legacy output format from the @samp{sysv}, @samp{bsd},
+@samp{crc} or @samp{crc32b} algorithms.
+
+Three input formats are supported. Either the "untagged" output format,
+the "tagged" output format, or the BSD reversed mode format
+which is similar to the "untagged" output format
but doesn't use a character to distinguish binary and text modes.
+@xref{cksum output modes} for details of these formats.
For the @command{cksum} command, the @option{--check} option
supports auto-detecting the digest algorithm to use,
a checksum inconsistent with the associated file, or if no valid
line is found, @command{cksum} exits with nonzero status. Otherwise,
it exits successfully.
-The @command{cksum} command does not support @option{--check}
-with the older @samp{sysv}, @samp{bsd}, @samp{crc} or @samp{crc32b} algorithms.
@item --ignore-missing
@opindex --ignore-missing