HEXEDIT(1)HEXEDIT(1)NAMEhexedit - view and edit files in hexadecimal or in ASCII
SYNOPSIShexedit [-s | --sector] [-m | --maximize] [-h | --help]
[filename]
DESCRIPTIONhexedit shows a file both in ASCII and in hexadecimal. The
file can be a device as the file is read a piece at a
time. You can modify the file and search through it.
OPTIONS-s, --sector
Format the display to have entire sectors.
-m, --maximize
Try to maximize the display.
-h, --help
Show the usage.
COMMANDS (quickly)
Moving
<, > : go to start/end of the file
Right: next character
Left: previous character
Down: next line
Up: previous line
Home: beginning of line
End: end of line
PUp: page forward
PDown: page backward
Miscellaneous
F2: save
F3: load file
F1: help
Ctrl-L: redraw
Ctrl-Z: suspend
Ctrl-X: save and exit
Ctrl-C: exit without saving
Tab: toggle hex/ascii
Return: go to
Backspace: undo previous character
Ctrl-U: undo all
Ctrl-S: search forward
Ctrl-R: search backward
Cut&Paste
Ctrl-Space: set mark
Esc-W: copy
Ctrl-Y: paste
Esc-Y: paste into a file
Esc-I: fill
COMMANDS (full and detailed)
o Right-Arrow, Left-Arrow, Down-Arrow, Up-Arrow - move the
cursor.
o Ctrl+F, Ctrl+B, Ctrl+N, Ctrl+P - move the cursor.
o Ctrl+Right-Arrow, Ctrl+Left-Arrow, Ctrl+Down-Arrow,
Ctrl+Up-Arrow - move n times the cursor.
o Esc+Right-Arrow, Esc+Left-Arrow, Esc+Down-Arrow, Esc+Up-
Arrow - move n times the cursor.
o Esc+F, Esc+B, Esc+N, Esc+P - move n times the cursor.
o Home, Ctrl+A - go the beginning of the line.
o End, Ctrl+E - go to the end of the line.
o Page up, Esc+V, F5 - go up in the file by one page.
o Page down, Ctrl+V, F6 - go down in the file by one page.
o <, Esc+<, Esc+Home - go to the beginning of the file.
o >, Esc+>, Esc+End - go to the end of the file (for regu-
lar files that have a size).
o Ctrl+Z - suspend hexedit.
o Ctrl+U, Ctrl+_, Ctrl+/ - undo all (forget the modifica-
tions).
o Ctrl+Q - read next input character and insert it (this
is useful for inserting control characters and bound
keys).
o Tab, Ctrl+T - toggle between ASCII and hexadecimal.
o /, Ctrl+S - search forward (in ASCII or in hexadecimal,
use TAB to change).
o Ctrl+R - search backward.
o Ctrl+G, F4 - go to a position in the file.
o Return - go to a sector in the file if --sector is used,
otherwise go to a position in the file.
o Esc+L - display the page starting at the current cursor
position.
o F2, Ctrl+W - save the modifications.
o F1, Esc+H - help (show the man page).
o Ctrl+O, F3 - open another file
o Ctrl+L - redisplay (refresh) the display (usefull when
your terminal screws up).
o Backspace, Ctrl+H - undo the modifications made on the
previous byte.
o Esc+Ctrl+H - undo the modifications made on the previous
bytes.
o Ctrl+Space, F9 - set mark where cursor is.
o Esc+W, Delete, F7 - copy selected region.
o Ctrl+Y, Insert, F8 - paste (yank) previously copied
region.
o Esc+Y, F11 - save previously copied region to a file.
o Esc+I, F12 - fill the selection with a string
o Esc+T - truncate the file at the current location
o Ctrl+C - unconditional quit (without saving).
o F10, Ctrl+X - quit.
For the Esc commands, it sometimes works to use Alt
instead of Esc. Funny things here (especially for froggies
:) egrave = Alt+H , ccedilla = Alt+G, Alt+Y = ugrave.
Modeline
At the bottom of the display you have the modeline (copied
from emacs). As in emacs, you have the indications --, **
and %% meaning unmodified, modified and read-only. Then
you have the name of the file you're currently editing.
Next to it is the current position of the cursor in the
file followed by the total file size. The total file size
isn't quite correct for devices.
While in --sector mode, it shows the sector the cursor is
in.
Editing
You can edit in ASCII or in hexadecimal. You can switch
between the two with Tab. When the file is read-only, you
can't edit it. When trying to edit a read-only file, a
message (``File is read-only'') tells you it is non-
writable.
The modifications are shown in bold until they are saved.
The modeline indicates whether you have modified the file
or not.
When editing in hexadecimal, only 0,1,...,9, a,b,...,f,
A,B,...F are legal. Other keys are unbound. The first
time you hit an unbound key, the help pops up. It won't
pop again unless you call the help directly (with F1).
When editing in ascii, you can find it difficult to enter
characters like / which are bound to a function. The solu-
tion is to use the quoted insert function Ctrl+Q, the key
after the quoted insert function is not processed by
hexedit (like emacs' quoted-insert, or like the \ charac-
ter in C).
Searching
You can search for a string in ASCII or in hexadecimal.
You can switch between the two with Tab. If the string is
found, the cursor is moved to the beginning of the match-
ing location. If the search failed, a message (``not
found'') tells you so. You can cancel the search by press-
ing a key.
The search in hexadecimal is a bit confusing. You must
give a hexadecimal string with an even number of charac-
ters. The search can then be done byte by byte. If you
want to search a long number (eg: a 32 bit number), you
must know the internal representation of that number (lit-
tle/big endian problem) and give it the way it is in mem-
ory. For example, on an Intel processor (little endian),
you must swap every bytes: 0x12345678 is written
0x78563412 in memory and that's the string you must give
to the search engine.
Before searching you are asked if you want to save the
changes, if the file is edited.
Selecting, copying, pasting, filling
First, select the part of the buffer you want to copy:
start setting the mark where you want. Then go to the end
of the area you want to copy (you can use the go to func-
tion and the search functions). Then copy it. You can then
paste the copied area in the current file or in another
file.
You can also fill the selected area with a string or a
character: start choosing the block you want to fill in
(set mark then move to the end of the block), and call the
fill function (F12). hexedit ask you the string you want
to fill the block with.
The code is not tuned for huge filling as it keeps the
modifications in memory until you save them. That's why
hexedit will warn you if you try to fill in a big block.
When the mark is set, the selection is shown in reverse
mode.
Be aware that the copied area contains the modifications
done at the time of the copy. But if you undo the modifi-
cations, it does not change the content of the copy
buffer. It seems obvious but it's worth saying.
Scrolling
The scrolling is different whether you are in --sector
mode or not. In normal mode, the scrolling is line by
line. In sector mode, the scrolling is sector by sector.
In both modes, you can force the display to start at a
given position using Esc+L.
SEE ALSOod(1), hdump(1), hexdump(1), bpe(1), hexed(1), beav(1).
AUTHOR
Pixel (Pascal Rigaux) <pixel@merd.net>,
Home page is <http://merd.net/pixel/>.
UNRESTRICTIONShexedit is Open Source; anyone may redistribute copies of
hexedit to anyone under the terms stated in the GNU Gen-
eral Public License.
You can find hexedit at
<http://merd.net/pixel/hexedit-1.2.7.src.tgz> and
<http://merd.net/pixel/hexedit-1.2.7.bin.i386.dynamic.tgz>.
TODO
Anything you think could be nice...
LIMITATIONS
There are problems with the curses library given with Red-
hat 5.0 that make hexedit think the terminal is huge. The
result is that hexedit is not usable.
The shortcuts work on some machines, and not on others.
That's why there are many shortcuts for each function. The
Ctrl+Arrows and the Alt+. do not work work as they should
most of the time. On SUNs, you must do Ctrl+V-Ctrl+V
instead of Ctrl+V (!); and the Alt key is the diamond one.
While searching, it could be interesting to know which
position the search has reached. It's always nice to see
something moving to help waiting.
The hexadecimal search could be able to search modulo 4
bits instead of 8 bits. Another feature could be to com-
plete padd odd length hexadecimal searches with zeros.
BUGS
I have an example where the display is completly screwed
up. It seems to be a bug in ncurses (or maybe in xterm and
rxvt)?? Don't know if it's me using ncurses badly or
not... It seems to happen when hexedit leaves only one
space at the end of the lines... If anyone has a (or the)
solution, please tell me!
If you have any problem with the program (even a small
one), please do report it to me. Remarks of any kind are
also welcome.
12 July 1998 HEXEDIT(1)
