Extended Dump and Load Utility

This page describes, in Unix manual page style, xd, a utility which dumps files in hexadecimal, decimal, or octal, with file addresses shown in any of those formats. xd can read files in any of the formats it writes, recreating binary files, including modifications made by editing the dump with any text editor. In addition, xd can transform a binary file into a C data declaration which permits embedding its contents into a program. xd is available as C source code compatible with most Unix systems.

NAME

xd – extended dump and load utility

SYNOPSIS

xd [ −aaddrfmt −c −dlabel −l −ndatafmt −s ] [ infile [ outfile ] ]

DESCRIPTION

xd dumps files in hexadecimal, decimal, or octal, optionally with ISO characters side by side. File addresses can likewise be displayed in hex, decimal, or octal notation.

xd can read dump files in the same formats it writes and create binary files from the data therein. This allows you to dump a binary file with xd, edit it with your favourite text editor, then make a new binary file containing whatever changes you've made. When creating a binary file, xd normally assumes you've only modified data in place (neither expanding nor contracting the file) and verifies file addresses to guarantee this. However, a "stream" option is available which ignores file addresses so you're free to insert and delete bytes at will. xd thus turns your existing text editor into a binary file editor without requiring you to learn any new commands.

Finally, xd can read a binary file and emit a C language data declaration which contains the data from the file. This is handy when you wish to embed binary data within C programs.

OPTIONS

−aaddrfmt

Displays addresses in the dumped file as specified by addrfmt: d for decimal, h or x for hexadecimal, and o for octal. By default, addresses are shown in hexadecimal.

−c

Display ISO characters alongside the numeric dump. Non-printing characters (according to ISO 8859/1) are shown as periods. The ISO characters are separated from the dump by vertical bar characters, which xd treats as comment delimiters when loading a file.

−dlabel

Dumps the file as a C language declaration of an array of unsigned char which, when compiled, will contain the same data as the binary input file. The C array declaration is given the variable name label, or xd_data if no label specification is given. Data are declared as individual bytes to guarantee portability across architectures with different byte ordering conventions, and are expressed as decimal numbers in lines of less than 80 characters for maximum portability among compilers. The C operator sizeof may be applied to the array label to obtain its length in bytes.

−l

Load file from dump. xd reads a file in the same format it writes, creating a binary output file. Each line is assumed to begin with a file address terminated by a colon. Data bytes are separated by white space, and any characters after a vertical bar are ignored (thus discarding any ISO characters included in the dump with the −c option). If the −s option is not specified, each file address is checked against the number of bytes written so far to guarantee that no bytes have been added or deleted. Files must be loaded with the −a and −n options set the same as when the file was dumped.

−ndatafmt

Edits bytes in the dumped file as specified by datafmt: d for decimal, h or x for hexadecimal, and o for octal. By default, bytes are shown in hexadecimal.

−s

Stream input when loading file. If this option is specified in conjunction with the −l option, file addresses are not verified when loading a file and, in fact, need not be specified at all. The input file is treated as a stream of byte values separated by white space. This option allows you to create a dump with xd, edit it as you wish with any text editor, inserting and deleting bytes in the file wherever you like, then create a binary file from the modified dump with the command xd −l −s dumpfile outfile.

−u

Print how-to-call information.

FILES

If no infile is specified, xd obtains its input from standard input; if no outfile is given, output is sent to standard output. The input and output are processed in a strictly serial manner regardless of options; consequently xd may be used in pipelines without restrictions.

BUGS

Input error checking in load mode might be improved. Note that each byte in load mode must be specified as a number in the same format selected by the −n option when the file was dumped, separated by white space, and that the −a and −n options must be set the same when loading a file as when it was dumped.

SEE ALSO

cc(1), od(1), iso_8859_1(7)

Download xd-1.4.tar.gz (Gzipped TAR archive)

The release archive contains source code, a Makefile for building the program, and documentation in manual page and HTML form.

COPYING

This software is in the public domain. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, without any conditions or restrictions. This software is provided “as is” without express or implied warranty.

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