As Lynne says md5check (part of etree-scripts does the job fine.
If you're using ubuntu, there is an unofficial repository for etree-scripts (and shorten) at:
https://launchpad.net/~ketilwaa/+archive/etree-scripts
It's not been updated for a while, but I use it with oneiric without any problems.
Also, the following may be useful
http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl1_md5sum.htm
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