From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 18 01:29:24 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 060F0106566C for ; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from dirg.bris.ac.uk (dirg.bris.ac.uk [137.222.10.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B76278FC13 for ; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seis.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.10.93]) by dirg.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NLRei-0002tq-3s; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:22 +0000 Received: from mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.187.241]) by seis.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1NLReg-0007Gb-Q6; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:19 +0000 Received: from mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id nBI1TIWQ080729; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:18 GMT (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) Received: (from mexas@localhost) by mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id nBI1TIne080721; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:18 GMT (envelope-from mexas@bristol.ac.uk) X-Authentication-Warning: mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk: mexas set sender to mexas@bristol.ac.uk using -f Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:18 +0000 From: Anton Shterenlikht To: Rolf Nielsen Message-ID: <20091218012918.GA71118@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> References: <20091218005102.GA51064@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> <4B2AD666.9090404@lazlarlyricon.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4B2AD666.9090404@lazlarlyricon.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Spam-Score: -4.4 X-Spam-Level: ---- Cc: Anton Shterenlikht , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: editing a binary file X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:29:24 -0000 On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 02:09:58AM +0100, Rolf Nielsen wrote: > Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > > I'm creating binary files in fortran. > > Fortran adds 4 byte record delimiters at the beginning > > and the end of each record, which, in the case of a binary > > file, is just at the beginning and at the end of the file. > > I need to delete these record delimiters, because the > > software I use to visualise the binary files interprets > > them as data. But I don't know how. I've looked at > > hexdump and od, but those are only dumping (I think) > > file contents, and I cannot see how to edit a file with them. > > > > Any advice? > > > > many thanks > > anton > > > > Hello Anton, > > My bet would be /usr/ports/editors/hexedit. Been a while since I've used > it, but AFAIR, it has a curses or a curses like interface, and it's > fairly simple to use, yet sufficiently powerful for most normal binary > editing. If you want a GUI, I believe gnome (and probably KDE as well) > has its own hex editor. thank you. hexedit does the job on small files, but is quite clunky. If I've a xGB file and I need to delete the first and the last record, this becomes quite hard, if at all possible. I didn't appreciate it's not that simple. Perhaps I can read a file with C and write back? I can't remember if C supports binary files, and whether it also writes some record delimiters. many thanks anton -- Anton Shterenlikht Room 2.6, Queen's Building Mech Eng Dept Bristol University University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK Tel: +44 (0)117 331 5944 Fax: +44 (0)117 929 4423