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 HEXEDIT(1)                                                       HEXEDIT(1)
                                12 July 1998



 NAME
      hexedit - view and edit files in hexadecimal or in ASCII

 SYNOPSIS
      hexedit [-s | --sector] [-m | --maximize] [-l<n> | --linelength <n>]
      [-h | --help] [filename]

 DESCRIPTION
      hexedit 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.

      --color
           Display colors.  This feature is only available if your operating
           system supports it.

      -l<n>, --linelength <n>
           Explicitly set the number of bytes to display per line to <n>.

      -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



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 HEXEDIT(1)                                                       HEXEDIT(1)
                                12 July 1998



      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 regular files
      that have a size).
      o Ctrl+Z - suspend hexedit.
      o Ctrl+U, Ctrl+_, Ctrl+/ - undo all (forget the modifications).
      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 (useful 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.



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 HEXEDIT(1)                                                       HEXEDIT(1)
                                12 July 1998



      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 solution 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 \ character 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 matching location. If the search failed, a
      message "not found" tells you so. You can cancel the search by
      pressing a key.
      The search in hexadecimal is a bit confusing. You must give a
      hexadecimal string with an even number of characters. 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 (little/big endian problem) and give it the way it is in
      memory. 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



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 HEXEDIT(1)                                                       HEXEDIT(1)
                                12 July 1998



      file is edited.

      For more sophisticated search, see Volker Schatz's patch at
      <http://www.volkerschatz.com/unix/homebrew.html#hexedit>.

    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 function 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 modifications, 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 ALSO
      od(1), hdump(1), hexdump(1), bpe(1), hexed(1), beav(1).

 AUTHOR
      Pixel (Pascal Rigaux) <pixel@rigaux.org>,
      Home page is <http://rigaux.org/>.

 UNRESTRICTIONS
      hexedit is Open Source; anyone may redistribute copies of hexedit to
      anyone under the terms stated in the GNU General Public License.

      You can find hexedit at
      <https://github.com/pixel/hexedit/archive/1.6.tar.gz>

 TODO
      Anything you think could be nice...

 LIMITATIONS
      There are problems with the curses library given with Redhat 5.0 that



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 HEXEDIT(1)                                                       HEXEDIT(1)
                                12 July 1998



      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 complete padd odd length
      hexadecimal searches with zeros.

 BUGS
      I have an example where the display is completely 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.

























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