FB(1) FB(1)
NAME
fb - binary file viewer, editor, and manipulator
SYNOPSIS
fb [[-AaBbCcDdEeHhKkLlNnOoSsTt] [-i INC] [-r RNG] [-p PS]
File] | [r RNG BYTE File] | [a|c RNG File1 [File2]] |
[t[ ]b|d|h|o File1 [File2]] | [b|d|h|o|-|. File1 File2] |
[- c|h|n|v]
DESCRIPTION
fb provides interactive browsing of a file or the contents
of a file can be streamed (without interaction) to stan-
dard output. The file can be viewed in binary, octal,
decimal, hexadecimal, or characters. Optionally, fb will
read standard input if option -t is in effect and "-" is
given as the file name. Output consists of "pages" of one
or more lines. Each line of a page consists of the offset
from the beginning of the file in decimal (optional if
non-interactive), followed first by one or more columns of
an optional numeric display in either binary, octal, deci-
mal, or hexadecimal; and this, in turn, followed by an
optional character display; however, at least one of the
two displays must be present. Unprintable characters will
show as a period. By default, fb has a hexadecimal
numeric display along with a character display.
fb also has a limited editing capability if invoked with
the -e option and the file is writable. In edit mode, the
user can specify which bytes in the file to overwrite.
These bytes can be overwritten in either binary, octal,
decimal, hexadecimal, or character formats. The format in
effect is in agreement with the current display.
fb also has five helper methods: append, copy, translate,
replace, and compare. The append method allows for copy-
ing a selection of the contents of one file to the end of
another or the same file. If the second file does not
exist, it is created. The copy method allows for copying
a selection of the contents of one file to another or the
same file. Be aware that the second file is overwritten;
in particular, copying a file to itself will reduce the
file to the size of the portion that was copied.
The translate method will convert either binary, octal,
decimal, or hexadecimal numbers in one file into bytes and
copy these bytes to another or the same file. Or the
translate will convert numbers from standard input into
bytes and copy these to a file. The numbers can option-
ally be delimited with any character that is not a digit
for the given base and is not the character "|". The "|"
character is used to indicate the start of a comment. The
"|" character and all characters after it to the end of
line will be ignored. At any place in the file where the
numbers are not delimited, 8 digits (for binary), 3 digits
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(for octal and decimal), and 2 digits (for hexadecimal)
will be converted at a time.
The replace method will replace all of the bytes in a
specified portion of a file with a particular value.
The compare method will report the offsets where two files
differ and the value of the bytes (in binary, decimal,
hexadecimal, or octal) at these offsets till the end of
the shortest file. If the lengths of the files are dif-
ferent, it will also report the end of file (EOF) for both
files. The exit status of the compare method is one of
five values: 0 - files the same, 1 - an error has occur-
red, 2 - bytes differ, 3 - sizes differ, and 4 - bytes and
sizes differ. Optionally the compare method can report
only if the files differ and how or it can run silent:
returning only the exit status.
OPTIONS
Base options:
-b Binary numbers (8 columns).
-B Binary numbers (16 columns).
-d Decimal numbers (16 columns).
-D Decimal numbers (32 columns).
-h Hexadecimal numbers (16 columns).
-H Hexadecimal numbers (32 columns).
-o Octal numbers (16 columns).
-O Octal numbers (32 columns).
Display options:
-a Suppress offset addresses. (Ignored if effective
mode is interactive.)
-A Display offset addresses.
-c Characters only (64 columns).
-C Characters only (128 columns).
-k Numeric display is compressed (no spaces between
numbers).
-K Numeric display is not compressed (spaces between
numbers).
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-l Suppress column labels.
-L Display column labels.
-n Exclude supplemental character display.
-N Include supplemental character display.
Mode options:
-e Edit mode. (Ignored if effective mode is non-
interactive.)
-E Read-only mode.
-s Stream output (non-interactive mode).
-S Interactive mode. (Will nullify previous -s or -t
options.)
-t Read from standard input and stream output (non-
interactive mode). (Will nullify previous -S or -T
options.) Note: File name MUST be "-".
-T Read from File.
Options with arguments:
-i INC Increment page INC bytes. INC is a nonnegative
integer. 0 sets increment to default, (number of
rows)*(number of columns).
-r RNG Portion of File to browse. RNG is Start |
[Start].[Stop]; where Start (default: 0) and Stop
(default: end of file) are the starting and stop-
ping offsets of File.
-p PS Page size. PS is Rw | [Rw].[Cl]. Rw is number of
rows, range [0..64] (default: 16). Cl is number of
columns, range [0..128] (default: specified by
either the base option or -c,-C options). Note: 0
for either Rw or Cl will also invoke their
defaults.
Note: Options are evaluated left-to-right. When options
are mutually exclusive, only last one is effective.
fb File
is the same as fb -hAEKLNST -p . -r . -i 0 File
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Append and Copy methods:
fb a RNG File1 [File2]
fb c RNG File1 [File2]
Copy bytes in range RNG from File1 and append/copy
to File1 or optional File2. RNG is Start |
[Start].[Stop]; where Start (default: 0) is the
offset in File1 where copying should start and Stop
(default: end of file) is offset where copying
should stop.
Translate method:
fb t[ ]b|d|h|o File1 [File2]
Convert binary|decimal|hexadecimal|octal numbers in
File1 (or standard input if no space is present
between "t" and base indicator) into bytes and copy
bytes to File1 (or to optional File2 if input is
NOT from standard input). See under notes (below)
for more information.
Replace method:
fb r RNG BYTE File
Replace bytes in range RNG of File with value BYTE
[0..255]. RNG is Start | [Start].[Stop]; where
Start (default: 0) is the offset in File where
replacement should start and Stop (default: end of
file) is the offset where replacement should stop.
Compare method:
fb b|d|h|o|-|. File1 File2
Report offsets and byte values (in binary|deci-
mal|hexadecimal|octal) where File1 and File2 differ
till end of shortest file. If file lengths differ,
report end of file (EOF) for both files. With
option "-" report only if files differ and how.
With option "." return exit status only: 0 - files
the same, 1 - error, 2 - bytes differ, 3 - sizes
differ, 4 - bytes and sizes differ.
Switches:
- c List interactive commands.
- h Display help page.
- n Display notes concerning fb.
- v Show current version information.
Note: A space MUST be present between "-" and
either c, h, n, or v.
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COMMANDS
+<number>
Set increment size INC to <number> and increment.
-<number>
Set increment size INC to -<number> and increment.
*<number>
Increment <number> * INC bytes.
<Enter>
Increment INC bytes.
- Set INC to -INC and increment.
+ Set INC to default (rows * columns) and increment.
# Display current value of INC.
<number>
Go to file offset position <number>.
@<number>
Overwrite bytes starting at position <number>.
(Edit mode only.)
b Binary display (default 8 columns).
B Binary display (default 16 columns).
d Decimal display (default 16 columns).
D Decimal display (default 32 columns).
h Hexadecimal display (default 16 columns).
H Hexadecimal display (default 32 columns).
o Octal display (default 16 columns).
O Octal display (default 32 columns).
c Character display only (default 64 columns).
C Character display only (default 128 columns).
[r].[c]
If r is nonzero, set number of rows to r (range:
[1..64]). If c is nonzero, override column
defaults of above alphabetic commands and set num-
ber of columns to c (range [1..128]).
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FB(1) FB(1)
A.[c] Display according to A (=b|B|d|D|h|H|o|O|c|C) and
restore default column settings if c not present or
zero; otherwise, override column defaults and set
number of columns to c.
| Toggle between supplemental character display pre-
sent or absent.
/ Toggle between column labels or no column labels.
! Toggle between compressed or uncompressed numeric
display.
<C Mark current position and execute command C.
> Go to previous marked position. (Initial marked
position is 0.)
? Display list of commands.
Q Terminate program. (Not case sensitive.)
NOTES
+ Program terminates if it reads past the last byte
of the file.
+ To prevent skewing of column labels when reading
some files (e.g. a growing file) pass the program
a maximum file size in the argument to the -r
option.
+ Overwriting, command @ (edit mode only), will
accept input according to the current numeric base
and will accept character strings (byte values in
the range [32..126]) when no numeric display is
present.
+ Enter "<>" to toggle between two file positions.
+ Files open for writing are also open for reading
(see exception below).
+ The command "." is null.
+ Translate method: fb t[ ]b|d|h|o File1 [File2]
- All characters from "|" to end of line are ignored
for input lines.
- If File1 and File2 are not the same file, File2 is
open for writing only.
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- Numbers in input may be delimited by any non-digit
for base 2|8|10|16 with the exception of the "|"
character. If not delimited, 8|3|3|2 digits will
be converted at a time.
- Example: "fb -als File | fb th File.out" results in
File and File.out having identical contents.
EXIT STATUS
fb returns
1 if an error occurred.
0 if there were no errors
with the exception of the compare method. In this case fb
returns, if there were no errors, either
0 files the same,
2 bytes differ,
3 sizes differ, or
4 bytes and sizes differ.
AUTHOR
John Howard Swaby
polymath@uwyo.edu
VERSION
fb 1.5 (2 May 1999)
SEE ALSO
dd(1), od(1)
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