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There's a nice CLI binutils utility for interpreting binary files, and outputting legible strings, in a cat-like fashion. It's called strings.

If you try to cat a binary file, you'll see a bunch of garbled text and alien symbols. And probably have to reset your shell. Which is sometimes not even possible

Just like cat, basic usage is simply:

strings ./example.bin

Personally, for quick perusal, I like to:

strings -aws ' ' ./example.bin | fold -sw $COLUMNS ; echo

If you want to test it on a real file, you can try something in the /bin directory, like: 

strings -aws ' ' /bin/true | fold -sw $COLUMNS ; echo

My question: Is there a similar, quick & easy method for editing these strings?

voices
  • 1,272

2 Answers2

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Yes. vim -b filename. The -b signifies binary file. See man page for vim.

   -b          Binary mode.  A few options will be set that makes it
               possible to  edit  a  binary  or  executable file.

bvi also suitable.

$ bvi /bin/ls
00000000  7F 45 4C 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 3E 00 01 00 00 00 .ELF..............>.....
00000018  A0 49 40 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 38 E7 01 00 00 00 00 00 .I@.....@.......8.......
00000030  00 00 00 00 40 00 38 00 09 00 40 00 1D 00 1C 00 06 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 ....@.8...@.............
00000048  40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 @.......@.@.....@.@.....
00000060  F8 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 F8 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........................
steve
  • 21,892
1

I stumbled upon this nice article about binary data manipulation: Manipulating Binary Data in Bash

It mostly explains a very handy tool called xxd

For example to dump a binary file in ASCII, you'll do:

xxd -b myfile.bin

To convert a short string, you could use the good old bc:

$ echo "obase=16; ibase=2; 1010" | bc
A

Another method to consider:

$ base64 < binary.file > text.file

ibase and obase define the conversion base for input and output numbers. The default for both input and output is base 10.

Sam
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