Different dump output styles
Binary digit dump (-b)
Instead of generating a hexadecimal dump, the use of the “-b” option allows us to create a dump that represents the binary digits of the data.
xxd -b [file path]
Binary digit dump of hello.txt
The above binary dump, generated using the -b option, shows that the character ‘H’ is converted to the binary sequence ‘01001000’, the character ‘e’ is converted to the binary sequence ‘01100101’, and so on.
Plain hexadecimal dump (-ps)
The “xxd -ps” option is used to generate a hexadecimal postscript-style dump, also known as plain hexdump style. It provides a specific output format where the bytes are displayed continuously without line breaks, suitable for certain applications or requirements.
xxd -ps [file path]
Plain hexadecimal dump
Uppercase hexadecimal dump (-u)
The “xxd -u” option in the xxd command is used to specify that the hexadecimal output should use uppercase characters instead of the default lowercase characters.
Hexadecimal dump in uppercase
xxd Command in Linux
xxd is a command-line tool that is primarily used for creating and analyzing hexadecimal dumps from files. It can also be used to reverse the process and convert a hexadecimal dump back into binary form. In this article, let’s uncover the practical applications of the “xxd” command in the Linux ecosystem.
xxd Command in Linux
- What is a ‘hexadecimal dump’?
- Installing xxd on Linux
- Using xxd command:
- Generating hexadecimal dumps
- Converting hexadecimal dump to the original file
- Formatting output of xxd
- Different dump output styles
- Embedding Binary Data in C/C++ Code (xxd -i)