NAME
    xxd - make a hexdump or do the reverse.

SYNOPSIS
    xxd -h[elp]
    xxd [options] [infile [outfile]]
    xxd -r[evert] [options] [infile [outfile]]

DESCRIPTION
    xxd creates a hex dump of a given file or standard input. It can also
    convert a hex dump back to its original binary form. Like uuencode(1)
    and uudecode(1)  it allows the transmission of binary data in a `mail-
    safe' ASCII representation, but has the advantage of decoding to  stan-
    dard output. Moreover, it can be used to perform binary file patching.

OPTIONS
    If no infile is given, standard input is read. If infile is specified
    as a `-' character, then input is taken from standard input.  If no
    outfile is given (or a `-' character is in its place), results are sent
    to standard output.

    Note that a "lazy" parser is used which does not check for more than
    the first option letter, unless the option is followed by a parameter.
    Spaces between a single option letter and its parameter are optional.
    Parameters to options can be specified in decimal, hexadecimal or octal
    notation. Thus -c8, -c 8, -c 010 and -cols 8 are all equivalent.

    -a | -autoskip
    toggle autoskip: A single '*' replaces nul-lines. Default off.

    -b | -bits
    Switch to bits (binary digits) dump, rather than hexdump.  This
    option writes octets as eight digits "1"s and "0"s instead of a
    normal hexacecimal dump. Each line is preceded by a line number
    in hexadecimal and followed by an ascii (or ebcdic) representa-
    tion. The command line switches -r, -p, -i do not work with this
    mode.

    -c cols | -cols cols
    -c cols | -cols cols format <cols> octets per line. Default 16
    (-i: 12, -ps: 30, -b: 6). Max 256.

    -E | -EBCDIC
    Change the character encoding in the righthand column from ASCII
    to EBCDIC. This does not change the hexadecimal representation.
    The option is meaningless in combinations with -r, -p or -i.

    -g bytes | -groupsize bytes
    seperate the output of every <bytes> bytes (two hex characters
    or eight bit-digits each) by a whitespace. Specify -g 0 to sup-
    press grouping. <Bytes> defaults to 2 in normal mode and  1 in
    bits mode.  Grouping does not apply to postscript or include
    style.

    -h | -help
    print a summary of available commands and exit. No hex dumping
    is performed.

    -i | -include
    output in C include file style. A complete static array defini-
    tion is written (named after the input file), unless xxd  reads
    from stdin.

    -l len | -len len
    stop after writing <len> octets.

    -p | -ps | -postscript | -plain
    output in postscript continuous hexdump style. Also known as
    plain hexdump style.

    -r | -revert
    reverse operation: convert (or patch) hexdump into binary.  If
    not writing to stdout, xxd writes into its output file without
    truncating it. Use the combination -r -p to read plain hexadeci-
    mal dumps without line number information and without a particu-
    lar column layout. Additional Whitespace  and line-breaks are
    allowed anywhere.

    -seek offset
    When used after  -r : revert with <offset> added to file posi-
    tions found in hexdump.

    -s [+][-]seek
    start at <seek> bytes abs. (or rel.) infile offset. + indicates
    that the  seek is relative to the current stdin file position
    (meaningless when not reading from stdin). - indicates that the
    seek should be that many characters from the end of the input
    (or if combined with
     + : before the current  stdin file position).  Without -s
    option, xxd starts at the current file position.

    -u   use upper case hex letters. Default is lower case.

    -v | -version
    show version string.

CAVEATS
    xxd -r has some builtin magic while evaluating line number information.
    If the ouput file is seekable, then the linenumbers at the start of
    each hexdump line may be out of order, lines may be missing, or over-
    lapping. In these cases xxd will lseek(2) to the next position. If the
    output file is  not seekable,  only gaps are allowed, which will be
    filled by null-bytes.

    xxd -r never generates parse errors. Garbage is silently skipped.

    When editing hexdumps, please note that xxd -r skips everything on the
    input line after reading enough columns of hexadecimal data (see option
    -c). This also means, that changes to the printable ascii (or ebcdic)
    columns are always ignored. Reverting a plain (or postscript) style
    hexdump with xxd -r -p does not depend on the correct number of
    columns.  Here an thing that looks like a pair of hex-digits is inter-
    preted.

    Note the difference between
    % xxd -i file
    and
    % xxd -i < file

    xxd -s +seek may be different from xxd -s seek , as lseek(2) is used to
    "rewind" input. A '+' makes a difference if the input source is stdin,
    and if stdin's file position is not at the start of the  file by the
    time xxd is started and given its input. The following examples may
    help to clarify (or further confuse!)...

    Rewind stdin before reading; needed because the `cat' has already read
    to the end of stdin.
    % sh -c 'cat > plain_copy; xxd -s 0 > hex_copy' < file

    Hexdump from file position 0x480 (=1024+128) onwards. The `+' sign
    means "relative to the current position", thus the `128' adds to the 1k
    where dd left off.
    % sh -c 'dd of=plain_snippet bs=1k count=1; xxd -s +128 > hex_snippet'
    < file

    Hexdump from file position 0x100 ( = 1024-768) on.
    % sh -c 'dd of=plain_snippet bs=1k count=1; xxd -s +-768 > hex_snippet'
    < file

    However,  this is a rare situation and the use of `+' is rarely needed.
    the author prefers to monitor the effect of xxd with  strace(1) or
    truss(1), whenever -s is used.

EXAMPLES
    Print everything but the first three lines (hex 0x30 bytes) of file
    % xxd -s 0x30 file

    Print 3 lines (hex 0x30 bytes) from the end of file
    % xxd -s -0x30 file

    Print 120 bytes as continuous hexdump with 40 octets per line.
    % xxd -l 120 -ps -c 20 xxd.1
    2e544820585844203120224d616e75616c207061
    676520666f7220787864220a2e5c220a2e5c2220
    32317374204d617920313939360a2e5c22204d61
    6e207061676520617574686f723a0a2e5c222020
    2020546f6e79204e7567656e74203c746f6e7940
    7363746e7567656e2e7070702e67752e6564752e

    Hexdump the first 120 bytes of this man page with 12 octets per line.
    % xxd -l 120 -c 12 xxd.1
    0000000: 2e54 4820 5858 4420 3120 224d .TH XXD 1 "M
    000000c: 616e 7561 6c20 7061 6765 2066 anual page f
    0000018: 6f72 2078 7864 220a 2e5c 220a or xxd"..\".
    0000024: 2e5c 2220 3231 7374 204d 6179 .\" 21st May
    0000030: 2031 3939 360a 2e5c 2220 4d61 1996..\" Ma
    000003c: 6e20 7061 6765 2061 7574 686f n page autho
    0000048: 723a 0a2e 5c22 2020 2020 546f r:..\"  To
    0000054: 6e79 204e 7567 656e 7420 3c74 ny Nugent <t
    0000060: 6f6e 7940 7363 746e 7567 656e ony@sctnugen
    000006c: 2e70 7070 2e67 752e 6564 752e .ppp.gu.edu.

    Display just the date from the file xxd.1
    % xxd -s 0x28 -l 12 -c 12 xxd.1
    0000028: 3231 7374 204d 6179 2031 3939 21st May 199

    Copy input_file to output_file and prepend 100 bytes of value 0x00.
    % xxd input_file | xxd -r -s 100 > output_file

    Patch the date in the file xxd.1
    % echo '0000029: 3574 68' | xxd -r - xxd.1
    % xxd -s 0x28 -l 12 -c 12 xxd.1
    0000028: 3235 7468 204d 6179 2031 3939 25th May 199

    Create a 65537 byte file with all bytes 0x00, except for the last one
    which is 'A' (hex 0x41).
    % echo '010000: 41' | xxd -r > file

    Hexdump this file with autoskip.
    % xxd -a -c 12 file
    0000000: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ............
    *
    000fffc: 0000 0000 40      ....A

    Create a 1 byte file containing a single  'A' character.  The number
    after '-r -s' adds to the linenumbers found in the file; in effect, the
    leading bytes are suppressed.
    % echo '010000: 41' | xxd -r -s -0x10000 > file

    Use xxd as a filter within an editor such as vim(1) to hexdump a region
    marked between `a' and `z'.
    :'a,'z!xxd

    Use xxd as a filter within an editor such as vim(1) to recover a binary
    hexdump marked between `a' and `z'.
    :'a,'z!xxd -r

    Use xxd as a filter within an editor such as vim(1) to recover one line
    of a hexdump. Move the cursor over the line and type:
    !!xxd -r

    Read single characters from a serial line
    % xxd -c1 < /dev/term/b &
    % stty < /dev/term/b -echo -opost -isig -icanon min 1
    % echo -n foo > /dev/term/b

RETURN VALUES
    The following error values are returned:

    0   no errors encountered.

    -1   operation not supported ( xxd -r -i still impossible).

    1   error while parsing options.

    2   problems with input file.

    3   problems with output file.

    4,5  desired seek position is unreachable.

SEE ALSO
    uuencode(1), uudecode(1),patch(1)

WARNINGS
    The tools weirdness matches its creators brain. Use entirely at your
    own risk. Copy files. Trace it. Become a wizard.

VERSION
    This manual page documents xxd version 1.7

AUTHOR
    (c) 1990-1997 by Juergen Weigert
    <jnweiger@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

    Distribute freely and credit me,
    make money and share with me,
    lose money and don't ask me.

    Manual page started by Tony Nugent
    <tony@sctnugen.ppp.gu.edu.au> <T.Nugent@sct.gu.edu.au>
    Small changes by Bram Moolenaar.  Edited by Juergen Weigert.