pyhash -- quickly hash some text with md5, sha1, or sha256. Works with piping input.

pyhash.py

#!/usr/bin/env python2.7
# 
# Install this in your PATH as `pyhash`.
#
# curl https://gist.github.com/jbenet/6502583/raw/pyhash.py -o pyhash
# mv pyhash /usr/bin/local/pyhash
# chmod +x /usr/bin/local/pyhash
#
# If you want more cryptographic hashing functions, try the PassLib module.
#
# Don't use this script for anything security related!

import hashlib
 
algorithms = dict(
  md5 = lambda s: hashlib.md5(s).hexdigest(),
  sha1 = lambda s: hashlib.sha1(s).hexdigest(),
  sha256 = lambda s: hashlib.sha256(s).hexdigest(),
)
 
 
def usage():
  print 'Usage:', sys.argv[0], '<algorithm> [text to hash]'
  print 'Available algorithms:'
  for algo in algorithms:
    print '\t', algo
 
 
if __name__ == '__main__':
 
  import sys
 
  try:
    algo = algorithms[sys.argv[1]]
  except (KeyError, IndexError):
    usage()
    sys.exit(1)
 
  if len(sys.argv) > 2:
    text = sys.argv[2]
  else:
    text = sys.stdin.read()
 
  print algo(text)
  

The md5 lambda function (L10) uses the wrong argument. I made some other minor changes in my fork, if you're interested.

@dideler thanks! :)

I wrote something similar a while ago, but with the option of adding salts when hashing text. It's here if you want to check it out.

curl https://gist.github.com/jbenet/6502583/raw/pyhash.py -o pyhash
mv pyhash /usr/bin/local/pyhash
chmod +x /usr/bin/local/pyhash