Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:36:01 +0100 From: Rolf Nielsen <listreader@lazlarlyricon.com> To: Anton Shterenlikht <mexas@bristol.ac.uk> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: editing a binary file Message-ID: <4B2ADC81.50903@lazlarlyricon.com> In-Reply-To: <20091218012918.GA71118@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> References: <20091218005102.GA51064@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> <4B2AD666.9090404@lazlarlyricon.com> <20091218012918.GA71118@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk>
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Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > 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 > How about one of these then? http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?ports/editors/bless/pkg-descr Main Features ------------- * Efficient editing of large data files. * Multilevel undo - redo operations. * Customizable data views. * Fast data rendering on screen. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?ports/editors/lfhex/pkg-descr Features: - Low memory usage with respect to filesize. Opening a 2gig file requires only ~1.4megs of additional memory. - Fast load times. - Fast save times. - Infinite undo/redo. - Conversion dialog - Search function. - Shows modified regions in alternate color. - Scalable working area. Resize can use as much screen as you give it. - Multiple editing modes (can switch on the fly) - Runtime configurable bytes per column. - binary comparison user interface I haven't tried either of them myself, but they do look promising. Rolf
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