Print out a file or data in hexadecimal and character form
Syntax: hex [-8] [file ...]
| Option | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
-8 |
Display eight bytes per line | Sixteen bytes are printed on each line |
$ cat /etc/motd
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Welcome to bruno-meerkat ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
$ hex /etc/motd
00000000 \xe2 \x94 \x8f \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2
e2 94 8f e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2
00000010 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94
94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94
00000020 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81
81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81
00000030 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2
e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2
00000040 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94
94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94
00000050 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x93 \n \xe2 \x94 \x83 W e l c o m e
81 e2 94 93 0a e2 94 83 20 57 65 6c 63 6f 6d 65
00000060 t o b r u n o - m e e r k a
20 74 6f 20 62 72 75 6e 6f 2d 6d 65 65 72 6b 61
00000070 t \xe2 \x94 \x83 \n \xe2 \x94 \x97 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2
74 20 e2 94 83 0a e2 94 97 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2
00000080 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94
94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94
00000090 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81
81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81
000000a0 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2
e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2
000000b0 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94
94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94
000000c0 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x81 \xe2 \x94 \x9b \n
81 e2 94 81 e2 94 81 e2 94 9b 0a
$ head -8 -c40 /dev/urandom | hex
00000000 \xa3 \x82 \xf5 \n b \xd2 l \x96 \x98 \xb0 \xac U \x9c b Q \xc4
a3 82 f5 0a 62 d2 6c 96 98 b0 ac 55 9c 62 51 c4
00000010 \xdb \x81 + \xe9 \x11 \x05 \xec \xc3 8 \xa6 \x1c ! ( o \xd7 I
db 81 2b e9 11 05 ec c3 38 a6 1c 21 28 6f d7 49
00000020 \x07 \xa2 \xa2 \x12 | \x88 \x01 \xc8
07 a2 a2 12 7c 88 01 c8
$
$ peval '"".join([chr(num) for num in range(256)])' | hex
00000000 \x00 \x01 \x02 \x03 \x04 \x05 \x06 \x07 \x08 \t \n \x0b \x0c \r \x0e \x0f
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f
00000010 \x10 \x11 \x12 \x13 \x14 \x15 \x16 \x17 \x18 \x19 \x1a \x1b \x1c \x1d \x1e \x1f
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f
00000020 ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f
00000030 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f
00000040 @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f
00000050 P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \\ ] ^ _
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f
00000060 ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f
00000070 p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ \x7f
70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f
00000080 \x80 \x81 \x82 \x83 \x84 \x85 \x86 \x87 \x88 \x89 \x8a \x8b \x8c \x8d \x8e \x8f
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 8a 8b 8c 8d 8e 8f
00000090 \x90 \x91 \x92 \x93 \x94 \x95 \x96 \x97 \x98 \x99 \x9a \x9b \x9c \x9d \x9e \x9f
90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 9a 9b 9c 9d 9e 9f
000000a0 \xa0 \xa1 \xa2 \xa3 \xa4 \xa5 \xa6 \xa7 \xa8 \xa9 \xaa \xab \xac \xad \xae \xaf
a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 aa ab ac ad ae af
000000b0 \xb0 \xb1 \xb2 \xb3 \xb4 \xb5 \xb6 \xb7 \xb8 \xb9 \xba \xbb \xbc \xbd \xbe \xbf
b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 ba bb bc bd be bf
000000c0 \xc0 \xc1 \xc2 \xc3 \xc4 \xc5 \xc6 \xc7 \xc8 \xc9 \xca \xcb \xcc \xcd \xce \xcf
c0 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 c8 c9 ca cb cc cd ce cf
000000d0 \xd0 \xd1 \xd2 \xd3 \xd4 \xd5 \xd6 \xd7 \xd8 \xd9 \xda \xdb \xdc \xdd \xde \xdf
d0 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 d8 d9 da db dc dd de df
000000e0 \xe0 \xe1 \xe2 \xe3 \xe4 \xe5 \xe6 \xe7 \xe8 \xe9 \xea \xeb \xec \xed \xee \xef
e0 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7 e8 e9 ea eb ec ed ee ef
000000f0 \xf0 \xf1 \xf2 \xf3 \xf4 \xf5 \xf6 \xf7 \xf8 \xf9 \xfa \xfb \xfc \xfd \xfe \xff
f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 fa fb fc fd fe ff
00000100 \n
0a
$
This last example uses my peval tool.
- Traditionally, I use the Unix
odcommand to show files like this but the incantation can be cryptic and inconsistent- Usually on Linux, I would use
od -ctx1but that's quite cryptic. I honestly can't even tell you what each option means from memory.- I think I tried to have someone try this on their Mac laptop and it wasn't working.
- Many years ago (maybe in my days with IBM z/OS), I think I got use to use
od -chor something like that. It's been so long that I can't remember clearly.
- Usually on Linux, I would use
- The character form is a best effort courtesy of the Python repr() function:
- Regular characters (letters, digits, punctuation, space) are displayed as is
- Other whitespace characters (excluding spaces) are printed with as a simple common escape such as
\nfor a newline - Otherwise, the character is shows in hex form