How to view files in binary from bash?

Question

I would like to view the contents of a file in the current directory, but in binary from the command line. How can I achieve this?

Busload

Answer 1

xxd does both binary and hexadecimal.

bin:

xxd -b file

hex:

xxd file

Agnesagnese

sudo xxd /dev/diskn | less is now my new favorite thing. – Rebate

...and it's preinstalled on Mac OS X and on Linux. – Conscionable

This has the advantage over "hexdump" that it also shows the ASCII form on the side, making it easier to identify the location I want to look at. – Keyte

And to dump the output to an ASCII text file for perusing & searching: xxd file > hex_dump_of_file.txt – Empathic

a supplment: xxd is not only for linux shell. I think it comes with vim. I had vim installed on windows, and I just found I can use xxd in windows too. – Anodic

You could even play with binary files in bash: Read a file by bytes in BASH – Cristoforo

Answer 2

hexdump -C yourfile.bin

unless you want to edit it of course. Most linux distros have hexdump by default (but obviously not all).

Magnetochemistry

I like this idea, but like the other suggestions it only outputs hex. Obviously this is much more compact than binary, but I am dealing with very small files so binary is preferred. Is hex the only way I will be able to view the file? – Busload

Well how small is the file? Anything over a couple of bytes and you will start to lose your mind using binary anyway. Hex makes much more sense for most things. If you are uncomfortable with hex just locate the bytes in which you are interested and convert them using a hex calculator. – Revealment

I need to make sure that my file is compressing correctly and I don't know what it should look like in hex (the size of each unit is 7 bits), so I would have to crunch the numbers by hand. – Busload

do you have any methods to see text from binary file? I can get HEX code, but how should i decode it to normal human text? – Reck

What about output of hexdump -C data.bin | hexdump -C – Electioneer

hexdump -C does not show binary output. This doesn't answer the question. – Humphries

Answer 3

vi your_filename

hit esc

Type :%!xxd to view the hex strings, the n :%!xxd -r to return to normal editing.

Revealment

I've found :%!xxd adding unwanted characters i.e. new line to my file? – Meany

Answer 4

As a fallback there's always od -xc filename

Fishbowl

Answer 5

sudo apt-get install bless

Bless is GUI tool which can view, edit, seach and a lot more. Its very light weight.

Kinlaw

Yes. I found this to be easier than Vim. – Badly

beware, it comes with mono – Mackenziemackerel

Working in centos using snap: sudo snap install bless-unofficial – Esch

Answer 6

If you want to open binary files (in CentOS 7):

strings <binary_filename>

Cardiomegaly

IMO this is the simplest most elegant of all the answers. I wish I could upvote it more than once. – Tijuanatike

The best answer hands down. This converts the Binary file into a JSON file. Not all heros wear capes,that is true – Lob

It doesn't convert it into JSON file. It only finds the printable strings in an object and show you. It doesn't convert the binary file into text or any format at all. – Splinter

Answer 7

Hexyl formats nicely: sudo apt install hexyl

Androclinium

very nice!///// – Slouch

Answer 8

$ echo -n 'Hello world!' | hd
00000000  48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f  72 6c 64 21              |Hello world!|
0000000c

Relict

hd is an alias to "hexdump -C" ... ? – Artima

@Artima Yes indeed. I use it because it is easier to remember. – Relict

And because it is present by default on some systems (Debian). – Relict

Answer 9

See Improved Hex editing in the Vim Tips Wiki.

Oberheim

Answer 10

To get the output all in a single line in Hexadecimal:

xxd -p yourfile.bin | tr -d '\n'

Fame

Answer 11

You can open emacs (in terminal mode, using emacs -nw for instance), and then use Hexl mode: M-x hexl-mode.

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Editing-Binary-Files.html

Accusal

Answer 12

to convert a file to its binary codes(hexadecimal representation) we say:

xxd filename                                         #

e.g:

xxd hello.c                                          #

to see all the contents and codes in a binary file , we could use commands like readelf and objdump, hexdump ,... .

for example if we want to see all the convert all the contents of a binary file(executable, shared libraries, object files) we say:

hexdump binaryfilename

e.g.

hexdump /bin/bash

but readelf is the best utility for analyzing elf(executable and linking format) files. so if we say:

readelf -a /bin/bash

all the contents in the binary file bash would be shown to us, also we could provide different flags for readelf to see all the sections and headers of an elf file separately, for example if we want to see only the elf header we say:

readelf -h /bin/bash

for reading all the segments of the file:

readelf -l /bin/bash

for reading all the sections of the file:

readelf -S /bin/sh

but again as summary , for reading a normal file like "hello.c" and a binary file like bash in path /bin/bash in linux we say:

xxd hello.c

readelf -a /bin/bash

Warford

Answer 13

You can use hexdump binary file

sudo apt-get install hexdump

hexdump -C yourfile.bin

Psychosomatic

This is just a duplicate of https://mcmap.net/q/86643/-how-to-view-files-in-binary-from-bash – Uruguay