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

User · Answer

hexdump -C yourfile bin   unless you want to edit it of course  Most linux distros have hexdump by default  but obviously not all

User · Answer

sudo apt-get install bless  Bless is GUI tool which can view  edit  seach and a lot more  Its very light weight

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

You can use hexdump binary file  sudo apt-get install hexdump  hexdump -C yourfile bin

User · Answer

See Improved Hex editing in the Vim Tips Wiki

User · Answer

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  quot hello c quot  and a binary file like bash in path  bin bash in linux we say  xxd hello c  readelf -a  bin bash

User · Answer

If you want to open binary files  in CentOS 7    strings  lt binary filename gt

User · Answer

vi your filename   hit  esc  Type    xxd to view the hex strings  the n    xxd -r to return to normal      editing

User · Answer

Hexyl formats nicely  sudo apt install hexyl

User · Answer

As a fallback there s always od -xc filename

User · Answer

xxd does both binary and hexadecimal   bin   xxd -b file   hex   xxd file

[bash] How to view files in binary from bash?

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