How to get an MD5 checksum in PowerShell

Question

I would like to calculate an MD5 checksum of some content. How do I do this in PowerShell?

Answer 1

Here's a function I use that handles relative and absolute paths:

function md5hash($path)
{
    $fullPath = Resolve-Path $path
    $md5 = new-object -TypeName System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider
    $file = [System.IO.File]::Open($fullPath,[System.IO.Filemode]::Open, [System.IO.FileAccess]::Read)
    try {
        [System.BitConverter]::ToString($md5.ComputeHash($file))
    } finally {
        $file.Dispose()
    }
}

Thanks to @davor above for the suggestion to use Open() instead of ReadAllBytes() and to @jpmc26 for the suggestion to use a finally block.