---
page_title: sha512 function reference
description: |-
  The `sha512` function computes the SHA512 hash of a given string and encodes it
  with hexadecimal digits. Learn how to use the `sha512` function in Packer templates.
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# `sha512` Function

`sha512` computes the SHA512 hash of a given string and encodes it with
hexadecimal digits.

The given string is first encoded as UTF-8 and then the SHA512 algorithm is applied
as defined in [RFC 4634](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4634). The raw hash is
then encoded to lowercase hexadecimal digits before returning.

## Examples

```shell-session
> sha512("hello world")
309ecc489c12d6eb4cc40f50c902f2b4d0ed77ee511a7c7a9bcd3ca86d4cd86f989dd35bc5ff499670da34255b45b0cfd830e81f605dcf7dc5542e93ae9cd76f
```
