Hexdump

A simple, cross-platform hexdump utility written in C. It can print, save, or visualize the contents of binary files, and is easy to install on both Windows and Linux using the provided install scripts and prebuilt binaries.

Features

• Print hexdump to terminal (-t)
• Save hexdump to a text file (-s)
• Visualize file as a color-coded image (-v, outputs PPM format)
• Start reading from a specific byte offset (-o <offset>)
• Limit output to the first N bytes (-n <num>)
• Cross-platform: works on Windows and Linux
• Easy installation via install.bat (Windows) or install.sh (Linux)

Usage

After installation, you can use hexdump or hd (on Windows) or just hd (on Linux) from any terminal.

hexdump.exe -t [-o offset] [-n num] file.bin      # Print hexdump to terminal
hexdump.exe -s [-o offset] [-n num] file.bin      # Save hexdump to hexdump.txt
hexdump.exe -v file.bin                          # Visualize file as hexdump.ppm

• -o <offset>: Start at byte offset (e.g., -o 512)
• -n <num>: Read only first N bytes (e.g., -n 256)

Installation

Windows (Recommended: Scoop)

If you use Scoop, you can install directly from my bucket:

scoop bucket add mrmisra https://github.com/mrmisra/scoop-bucket
scoop install hexdump

Windows (Script)

1. Download install.bat from the latest GitHub release.
2. Run install.bat as administrator.
   • The script will:
     • Download the latest hexdump.exe from GitHub
     • Create C:\Program Files\hexdump
     • Place the exe in that folder
     • Add the folder to your system PATH
     • Create an hd.bat wrapper so you can use hd as a shortcut

Windows (Manual)

1. Download hexdump.exe from the latest release.
2. Copy it to a folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\hexdump).
3. Add that folder to your system PATH for global access.
4. (Optional) Create a batch file hd.bat in the same folder with:

   @echo off
   hexdump.exe %*

Linux (Automatic)

1. Download install.sh from the latest GitHub release.
2. Make it executable and run it:

   chmod +x install.sh
   ./install.sh

   • The script will:
     • Download the latest hd ELF binary from GitHub
     • Place it in /usr/local/bin (or another directory in your PATH)
     • Make it available as hd (to avoid conflict with the system hexdump)

Linux (Manual)

1. Download the hd binary from the latest release.
2. Copy it to a directory in your PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin).
3. Make it executable:

   chmod +x /usr/local/bin/hd

Visualization

• The -v option creates a hexdump.ppm image file.
• Each byte is mapped to a color:
  • Black: Null bytes
  • Green: Printable ASCII
  • Light gray: Whitespace
  • Red: Control characters
  • Blue: Other bytes
• Open the .ppm file with an image viewer that supports PPM (e.g., IrfanView, GIMP, or convert to PNG).

License

GPL-v3