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Annotated edit history of xxd(1) version 2, including all changes. View license author blame.
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1 perry 1 XXD
2 !!!XXD
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 OPTIONS
7 CAVEATS
8 EXAMPLES
9 RETURN VALUES
10 SEE ALSO
11 WARNINGS
12 VERSION
13 AUTHOR
14 ----
15 !!NAME
16
17
18 ''xxd'' - make a hexdump or do the reverse.
19 !!SYNOPSIS
20
21
22 __xxd__ -h[[elp]__
23 xxd__ [[options] [[infile [[outfile]]__
24 xxd__ -r[[evert] [[options] [[infile [[outfile]]
25 !!DESCRIPTION
26
27
28 ''xxd'' creates a hex dump of a given file or standard
29 input. It can also convert a hex dump back to its original
30 binary form. Like __uuencode(1)__ and __uudecode(1)__
31 it allows the transmission of binary data in a `mail-safe'
32 ASCII representation, but has the advantage of decoding to
33 standard output. Moreover, it can be used to perform binary
34 file patching.
35 !!OPTIONS
36
37
38 If no ''infile'' is given, standard input is read. If
39 ''infile'' is specified as a __-__' character, then
40 input is taken from standard input. If no ''outfile'' is
41 given (or a __-__' character is in its place), results
42 are sent to standard output.
43
44
45 Note that a
46 -c8__, __-c 8__, __-c 010__ and
47 __-cols 8__ are all equivalent.
48
49
50 ''-a'' | ''-autoskip''
51
52
53 toggle autoskip: A single '*' replaces nul-lines. Default
54 off.
55
56
57 ''-b'' | ''-bits''
58
59
60 Switch to bits (binary digits) dump, rather than hexdump.
61 This option writes octets as eight digits
62
63
64 ''-c cols'' | ''-cols cols''
65
66
67 ''-c cols'' | ''-cols cols'' format
68 ''cols''
69 ''
70
71
72 ''-E'' | ''-EBCDIC''
73
74
75 Change the character encoding in the righthand column from
76 ASCII to EBCDIC. This does not change the hexadecimal
77 representation. The option is meaningless in combinations
78 with -r, -p or -i.
79
80
81 ''-g bytes'' | ''-groupsize bytes''
82
83
84 seperate the output of every bytes''
85 ''-g 0'' to suppress grouping.
86 ''Bytes''''2'' in normal mode and
87 ''1'' in bits mode. Grouping does not apply to postscript
88 or include style.
89
90
91 ''-h'' | ''-help''
92
93
94 print a summary of available commands and exit. No hex
95 dumping is performed.
96
97
98 ''-i'' | ''-include''
99
100
101 output in C include file style. A complete static array
102 definition is written (named after the input file), unless
103 xxd reads from stdin.
104
105
106 ''-l len'' | ''-len len''
107
108
109 stop after writing len''''
110
111
112 ''-p'' | ''-ps'' | ''-postscript'' |
113 ''-plain''
114
115
116 output in postscript continuous hexdump style. Also known as
117 plain hexdump style.
118
119
120 ''-r'' | ''-revert''
121
122
123 reverse operation: convert (or patch) hexdump into binary.
124 If not writing to stdout, xxd writes into its output file
125 without truncating it. Use the combination ''-r -p'' to
126 read plain hexadecimal dumps without line number information
127 and without a particular column layout. Additional
128 Whitespace and line-breaks are allowed
129 anywhere.
130
131
132 ''-seek offset''
133
134
135 When used after ''-r'' : revert with
136 ''offset''
137 ''
138
139
140 ''-s [[+][[-]seek''
141
142
143 start at seek''
144 ''+'' indicates that the seek is relative to the
145 current stdin file position (meaningless when not reading
146 from stdin). ''-'' indicates that the seek should be that
147 many characters from the end of the input (or if combined
148 with ''+'' : before the current stdin file position).
149 Without -s option, xxd starts at the current file
150 position.
151
152
153 ''-u''
154
155
156 use upper case hex letters. Default is lower
157 case.
158
159
160 ''-v'' | ''-version''
161
162
163 show version string.
164 !!CAVEATS
165
166
167 ''xxd -r'' has some builtin magic while evaluating line
168 number information. If the ouput file is seekable, then the
169 linenumbers at the start of each hexdump line may be out of
170 order, lines may be missing, or overlapping. In these cases
171 xxd will lseek(2) to the next position. If the output file
172 is not seekable, only gaps are allowed, which will be filled
173 by null-bytes.
174
175
176 ''xxd -r'' never generates parse errors. Garbage is
177 silently skipped.
178
179
180 When editing hexdumps, please note that ''xxd -r'' skips
181 everything on the input line after reading enough columns of
182 hexadecimal data (see option -c). This also means, that
183 changes to the printable ascii (or ebcdic) columns are
184 always ignored. Reverting a plain (or postscript) style
185 hexdump with xxd -r -p does not depend on the correct number
186 of columns. Here an thing that looks like a pair of
187 hex-digits is interpreted.
188
189
190 Note the difference between''
191 % xxd -i file''
192 and''
193 % xxd -i
194
195
196 ''xxd -s +seek'' may be different from ''xxd -s seek''
197 , as lseek(2) is used to
198 ''
199
200
201 Rewind stdin before reading; needed because the `cat' has
202 already read to the end of stdin.''
203 % sh -c 'cat
204
205
206 Hexdump from file position 0x480 (=1024+128) onwards. The
207 `+' sign means
208 % sh -c 'dd of=plain_snippet bs=1k count=1; xxd -s +128
209
210
211 Hexdump from file position 0x100 ( = 1024-768) on.''
212 % sh -c 'dd of=plain_snippet bs=1k count=1; xxd -s +-768
213
214
215 However, this is a rare situation and the use of `+' is
216 rarely needed. the author prefers to monitor the effect of
217 xxd with strace(1) or truss(1), whenever -s is
218 used.
219 !!EXAMPLES
220
221
222 Print everything but the first three lines (hex 0x30 bytes)
223 of __file__''
224 % xxd -s 0x30 file''
225
226
227 Print 3 lines (hex 0x30 bytes) from the end of
228 __file__''
229 % xxd -s -0x30 file''
230
231
232 Print 120 bytes as continuous hexdump with 40 octets per
233 line.''
234 % xxd -l 120 -ps -c 20 xxd.1''
235 2e544820585844203120224d616e75616c207061
236 676520666f7220787864220a2e5c220a2e5c2220
237 32317374204d617920313939360a2e5c22204d61
238 6e207061676520617574686f723a0a2e5c222020
239 2020546f6e79204e7567656e74203c746f6e7940
240 7363746e7567656e2e7070702e67752e6564752e
241
242
243 Hexdump the first 120 bytes of this man page with 12 octets
244 per line.''
245 % xxd -l 120 -c 12 xxd.1''
246 0000000: 2e54 4820 5858 4420 3120 224d .TH XXD 1
247 000000c: 616e 7561 6c20 7061 6765 2066 anual page f
248 0000018: 6f72 2078 7864 220a 2e5c 220a or
249 xxd
250 0000024: 2e5c 2220 3231 7374 204d 6179 .
251 0000030: 2031 3939 360a 2e5c 2220 4d61 1996..
252 000003c: 6e20 7061 6765 2061 7574 686f n page autho
253 0000048: 723a 0a2e 5c22 2020 2020 546f r:..
254 0000054: 6e79 204e 7567 656e 7420 3c74 ny Nugent
255 0000060: 6f6e 7940 7363 746e 7567 656e ony@sctnugen
256 000006c: 2e70 7070 2e67 752e 6564 752e
257 .ppp.gu.edu.
258
259
260 Display just the date from the file xxd.1''
261 % xxd -s 0x28 -l 12 -c 12 xxd.1''
262 0000028: 3231 7374 204d 6179 2031 3939 21st May
263 199
264
265
266 Copy __input_file__ to __output_file__ and prepend 100
267 bytes of value 0x00.''
268 % xxd input_file | xxd -r -s 100
269
270
271 Patch the date in the file xxd.1''
272 % echo '0000029: 3574 68' | xxd -r - xxd.1
273 % xxd -s 0x28 -l 12 -c 12 xxd.1''
274 0000028: 3235 7468 204d 6179 2031 3939 25th May
275 199
276
277
278 Create a 65537 byte file with all bytes 0x00, except for the
279 last one which is 'A' (hex 0x41).''
280 % echo '010000: 41' | xxd -r
281
282
283 Hexdump this file with autoskip.''
284 % xxd -a -c 12 file''
285 0000000: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ............
286 *
287 000fffc: 0000 0000 40 ....A
288
289
290 Create a 1 byte file containing a single 'A' character. The
291 number after '-r -s' adds to the linenumbers found in the
292 file; in effect, the leading bytes are suppressed.''
293 % echo '010000: 41' | xxd -r -s -0x10000
294
295
2 WikiAdmin 296 Use xxd as a filter within an editor such as vim(1)
1 perry 297 to hexdump a region marked between `a' and `z'.''
298 :'a,'z!xxd''
299
300
2 WikiAdmin 301 Use xxd as a filter within an editor such as vim(1)
1 perry 302 to recover a binary hexdump marked between `a' and
303 `z'.''
304 :'a,'z!xxd -r''
305
306
2 WikiAdmin 307 Use xxd as a filter within an editor such as vim(1)
1 perry 308 to recover one line of a hexdump. Move the cursor over the
309 line and type:''
310 !!xxd -r''
311
312
313 Read single characters from a serial line''
314 % xxd -c1
315 % stty
316 % echo -n foo
317 !!RETURN VALUES
318
319
320 The following error values are returned:
321
322
323 0
324
325
326 no errors encountered.
327
328
329 -1
330
331
332 operation not supported ( ''xxd -r -i'' still
333 impossible).
334
335
336 1
337
338
339 error while parsing options.
340
341
342 2
343
344
345 problems with input file.
346
347
348 3
349
350
351 problems with output file.
352
353
354 4,5
355
356
357 desired seek position is unreachable.
358 !!SEE ALSO
359
360
361 uuencode(1), uudecode(1), patch(1)
362 !!WARNINGS
363
364
365 The tools weirdness matches its creators brain. Use entirely
366 at your own risk. Copy files. Trace it. Become a
367 wizard.
368 !!VERSION
369
370
371 This manual page documents xxd version 1.7
372 !!AUTHOR
373
374
375 (c) 1990-1997 by Juergen Weigert
376
377
378 Distribute freely and credit me,
379 make money and share with me,
380 lose money and don't ask me.
381
382
383 Manual page started by Tony Nugent
384 Small changes by Bram Moolenaar. Edited by Juergen
385 Weigert.
386 ----
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