bash, md5sum behaves strange

Question

Why is this different?

text="tralala"
echo -n $text | md5sum -

result: def7d827536761c20f449f69262ff20f

echo -n "tralala" | md5sum -

result : 7e4ef92d1472fa1a2d41b2d3c1d2b77a

what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I suspect you mistakenly did not provide the -n (output no newline) flag to echo. See sample from my machine below:

$ echo tralala | md5sum
def7d827536761c20f449f69262ff20f  -

$ echo -n tralala | md5sum 
7e4ef92d1472fa1a2d41b2d3c1d2b77a  -

$ text="tralala"
$ echo  $text | md5sum 
def7d827536761c20f449f69262ff20f  -

$ echo -n $text | md5sum 
7e4ef92d1472fa1a2d41b2d3c1d2b77a  -