how to get hexdump of a structure data

Question

 ....
 finalize(char *hdrs, sendip_data *headers[], int index,
                    sendip_data *data, sendip_data *pack)
 {

 ........

For debugging purposes I want a hex dump of the data and pack structures, which are of type sendip_data, a really complex structure. Actually they contain some binary information so I am not sure whether output of my project is correct or not. So for debugging purposes, I want to write the data into a file so that I can use hexdump as follows -

$hexdump -C file.txt

Also as this is a run time generation of a n/w packet so I am also not sure about the length of data and pack structure which I think fread / fwrite will require ..So please suggest me something.

Retardant

Not sure where to start here. sizeof(sendip_data) will give the size of that structure, but are you saying that it contains pointers to other data that you also want to be part of the output? – Cas

See also https://mcmap.net/q/410168/-off-the-shelf-c-hex-dump-code – Persistence

Answer 1

The following code will give you a hex dump of arbitrary memory from within your code.

#include <stdio.h>

// Usage:
//     hexDump(desc, addr, len, perLine);
//         desc:    if non-NULL, printed as a description before hex dump.
//         addr:    the address to start dumping from.
//         len:     the number of bytes to dump.
//         perLine: number of bytes on each output line.

void hexDump (
    const char * desc,
    const void * addr,
    const int len,
    int perLine
) {
    // Silently ignore silly per-line values.

    if (perLine < 4 || perLine > 64) perLine = 16;

    int i;
    unsigned char buff[perLine+1];
    const unsigned char * pc = (const unsigned char *)addr;

    // Output description if given.

    if (desc != NULL) printf ("%s:\n", desc);

    // Length checks.

    if (len == 0) {
        printf("  ZERO LENGTH\n");
        return;
    }
    if (len < 0) {
        printf("  NEGATIVE LENGTH: %d\n", len);
        return;
    }

    // Process every byte in the data.

    for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        // Multiple of perLine means new or first line (with line offset).

        if ((i % perLine) == 0) {
            // Only print previous-line ASCII buffer for lines beyond first.

            if (i != 0) printf ("  %s\n", buff);

            // Output the offset of current line.

            printf ("  %04x ", i);
        }

        // Now the hex code for the specific character.

        printf (" %02x", pc[i]);

        // And buffer a printable ASCII character for later.

        if ((pc[i] < 0x20) || (pc[i] > 0x7e)) // isprint() may be better.
            buff[i % perLine] = '.';
        else
            buff[i % perLine] = pc[i];
        buff[(i % perLine) + 1] = '\0';
    }

    // Pad out last line if not exactly perLine characters.

    while ((i % perLine) != 0) {
        printf ("   ");
        i++;
    }

    // And print the final ASCII buffer.

    printf ("  %s\n", buff);
}

// Very simple test harness.

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
    char my_str[] = "a char string greater than 16 chars";
    hexDump ("my_str", &my_str, sizeof (my_str), 16);
    return 0;
}

You pass into hexDump a description, memory address, length, and how many bytes you want on each line.

It will output a hex dump (including character data) for examination. When you run it with the included main, the output is:

my_str:
  0000  61 20 63 68 61 72 20 73 74 72 69 6e 67 20 67 72  a char string gr
  0010  65 61 74 65 72 20 74 68 61 6e 20 31 36 20 63 68  eater than 16 ch
  0020  61 72 73 00                                      ars.

Sean

nice..really helpful :) – Damiondamita

replace if ((pc[i] < 0x20) || (pc[i] > 0x7e)) with if (!isprint(pc[i])) – Abnegate

thank you good spirit.. I like your function, and i shall include it in my creations...part of your thoughts live in me now... – Betthel

The example in main looks wrong. The second parameter is &my_str and it should be my_str – Inherited

@frakman1, in this case, it makes no difference. The resulting type is different (pointer to char as opposed to pointer to char array) but they're both treated identically here (coerced to void*/char* in the function) . I prefer the &something form since it is needed if you have a non-array type, for example: int my_int; hexDump ("my_int", &my_int, sizeof (my_int));. See #2528818 for more detail. – Sean

C++ version with ANSI colours here - gist.github.com/shreyasbharath/32a8092666303a916e24a81b18af146b – Cavan

Answer 2

A hex dump for Android, should be suitable for other platforms as well.

LOGD(), same as DLOG(), plays the role of printf() because printf() does not work in Android. For platforms other than Android, you may #define DLOG printf.

dlog.h:

// Android logging
#include <android/log.h>
#define LOGD(...) __android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_DEBUG  , "~~~~~~", __VA_ARGS__)
#define DLOG(...) __android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_DEBUG  , "~~~~~~", __VA_ARGS__)
#define LOGE(...) __android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_ERROR  , "~~~~~~", __VA_ARGS__)
#define ELOG(...) __android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_ERROR  , "~~~~~~", __VA_ARGS__)

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif

void log_dump(const void*addr,int len,int linelen);
void log_dumpf(const char*fmt,const void*addr,int len,int linelen);

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

dump.cpp:

#include <dlog.h>
//#include <alloca.h>

inline char hdigit(int n){return "0123456789abcdef"[n&0xf];};

#define LEN_LIMIT 8
#define SUBSTITUTE_CHAR '`'

static const char* dumpline(char*dest, int linelen, const char*src, const char*srcend)
{
    if(src>=srcend) {
        return 0;
    }
    int i;
    unsigned long s = (unsigned long)src;
    for(i=0; i<8; i++) {
        dest[i] = hdigit(s>>(28-i*4));
    }
    dest[8] = ' ';
    dest += 9;
    for(i=0; i<linelen/4 ; i++) {
        if(src+i<srcend) {
            dest[i*3] = hdigit(src[i]>>4);
            dest[i*3+1] = hdigit(src[i]);
            dest[i*3+2] = ' ';
            dest[linelen/4*3+i] = src[i] >= ' ' && src[i] < 0x7f ? src[i] : SUBSTITUTE_CHAR;
        }else{
            dest[i*3] = dest[i*3+1] = dest[i*3+2] = dest[linelen/4*3+i] = ' ';
        }
    }
    return src+i;
}

void log_dumpf(const char*fmt,const void*addr,int len,int linelen)
{
#if LEN_LIMIT
    if(len>linelen*LEN_LIMIT) {
        len=linelen*LEN_LIMIT;
    }
#endif
    linelen *= 4;
    static char _buf[4096];
    char*buf = _buf;//(char*)alloca(linelen+1); // alloca() causes the initialization to fail!!!!
    buf[linelen]=0;
    const char*start = (char*)addr;
    const char*cur = start;
    const char*end = start+len;
    while(!!(cur = dumpline(buf,linelen,cur,start+len))){DLOG(fmt,buf);}
}

void log_dump(const void*addr,int len,int linelen)
{
    log_dumpf("%s\n",addr,len,linelen);
}

Usage example:

log_dumpf("args: %s\n", &p, 0x20, 0x10);

Output:

args: 61efadc4 00 3c 17 01 6d bc 59 61 02 00 00 00 80 ae ef 61 `<``m`Ya```````a
args: 61efadd4 00 3c 17 01 00 00 00 00 31 a5 59 61 80 ae ef 61 `<``````1`Ya```a

UPDATE: see dump.cpp and re_dump.h in reDroid (github), it includes a recursive dump that checks if a pointer is valid.

Warrenwarrener

It's nice there's an update but doesn't provide a lot of ease that there are no instructions in the repository and the linked files reference other files inside it. – Expostulate