This is well known hex-dump-type utility distributed as a part of vim-project. The program manual states: make a hexdump or do the reverse, which is the main features of the utility. It can do nearly everything hexdump can and moreover perform the reversal translation of hex-like text back to binary representation. Like uuencode and uudecode it allows the transmission of binary data in a `mail-safe' ASCII representation, but has the advantage of decoding to standard output. Moreover, it can be used to perform binary file patching.
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 20 octets per line.
% xxd -l 120 -ps -c 20 xxd.1
2e54482058584420312022417567757374203139
39362220224d616e75616c207061676520666f72
20787864220a2e5c220a2e5c222032317374204d
617920313939360a2e5c22204d616e2070616765
20617574686f723a0a2e5c2220202020546f6e79
204e7567656e74203c746f6e79407363746e7567
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 2241 .TH XXD 1 "A
000000c: 7567 7573 7420 3139 3936 2220 ugust 1996"
0000018: 224d 616e 7561 6c20 7061 6765 "Manual page
0000024: 2066 6f72 2078 7864 220a 2e5c for xxd"..\
0000030: 220a 2e5c 2220 3231 7374 204d "..\" 21st M
000003c: 6179 2031 3939 360a 2e5c 2220 ay 1996..\"
0000048: 4d61 6e20 7061 6765 2061 7574 Man page aut
0000054: 686f 723a 0a2e 5c22 2020 2020 hor:..\"
0000060: 546f 6e79 204e 7567 656e 7420 Tony Nugent
000006c: 3c74 6f6e 7940 7363 746e 7567 <tony@sctnug
Display just the date from the file xxd.1
% xxd -s 0x36 -l 13 -c 13 xxd.1
0000036: 3231 7374 204d 6179 2031 3939 36 21st May 1996
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 "0000037: 3574 68" | xxd -r - xxd.1
% xxd -s 0x36 -l 13 -c 13 xxd.1
0000036: 3235 7468 204d 6179 2031 3939 36 25th May 1996
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
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
There is a whole set of features that make xxd more useful than traditional hexdump in some cases:
- Reverse translation (ASCII-binary-ASCII)
- Continuous (plain) hexdump
- Seeking input/output file
- Less xxd binary size than hexdump one
- Endian conversion
- ...
It was surpizing for me, that the xxd utility was distributed as a part of vim-project and its packages. What if I didn't need the whole vim editor, but just xxd functionality? This was my case, when I needed the reverse translation feature, but didn't want the editor being built/installed on my system due to a memory limitation. In addition, if hexdump is better for various representations of output data, I find xxd feature reacher. The fact, that xxd prodice smaller execution binary, makes it to be the best candidate for embedded systems. So I decided to create a seperate configuration/installation package for xxd only.
Original utility code was taken from: vim github repo at the state of tag v8.1.0000
(xxd code copyrights are left untouched as well as the license declaration. This package is licensed by GPL-2.0 so to make it compatible with original utility)