hexdump Command Options and Formats

HEXDUMP(1) User Commands HEXDUMP(1) NAME hexdump - display file contents in hexadecimal, decimal, octal, or ascii hexdump options file ... hd options file ... DESCRIPTION The hexdump utility is a filter which displays the specified files, or standard input if no files are specified, in a user-specified format. OPTIONS Below, the length and offset arguments may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB. -b, --one-byte-octal One-byte octal display. Display the input offset in hexadecimal, followed by sixteen space-separated, three-column, zero-filled bytes of input data, in octal, per line. -c, --one-byte-char One-byte character display. Display the input offset in hexadecimal, followed by sixteen space-separated, three-column, space-filled characters of input data per line. -C, --canonical Canonical hex+ASCII display. Display the input offset in hexadecimal, followed by sixteen space-separated, two-column, hexadecimal bytes, followed by the same sixteen bytes in %_p format enclosed in | characters. Invoking the program as hd implies this option. -d, --two-bytes-decimal Two-byte decimal display. Display the input offset in hexadecimal, followed by eight space-separated, five-column, zero-filled, two-byte units of input data, in unsigned decimal, per line. -e, --format format_string Specify a format string to be used for displaying data. -f, --format-file file Specify a file that contains one or more newline-separated format strings. Empty lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash mark (#) are ignored. -L, --color[=when] Accept color units for the output. The optional argument when can be auto, never or always. If the when argument is omitted, it defaults to auto. The colors can be disabled; for the current built-in default see the --help output. See also the Colors subsection and the COLORS section below. -n, --length length Interpret only length bytes of input. -o, --two-bytes-octal Two-byte octal display. Display the input offset in hexadecimal, followed by eight space-separated, six-column, zero-filled, two-byte quantities of input data, in octal, per line. -s, --skip offset Skip offset bytes from the beginning of the input. -v, --no-squeezing The -v option causes hexdump to display all input data. Without the -v option, any number of groups of output lines which would be identical to the immediately preceding group of output lines (except for the input offsets), are replaced with a line comprised of a single asterisk. -x, --two-bytes-hex Two-byte hexadecimal display. Display the input offset in hexadecimal, followed by eight space-separated, four-column, zero-filled, two-byte quantities of input data, in hexadecimal, per line. -h, --help Display help text and exit. -V, --version Print version and exit. For each input file, hexdump sequentially copies the input to standard output, transforming the data according to the format strings specified by the -e and -f options, in the order that they were specified. FORMATS A format string contains any number of format units, separated by whitespace. A format unit

This section of the hexdump manual page describes the command's options and formatting capabilities. It details options for specifying output formats (octal, character, hexadecimal, decimal), controlling the length and offset of the input, suppressing duplicate lines, and specifying custom format strings. It also covers the use of color in the output and provides options for displaying help and version information. The document concludes with a brief introduction to the format string syntax used by hexdump.