PD binary or hex editor for UNIX

[Adrian J Ho]

In article <3422 at unisoft.UUCP> rembo at unisoft.UUCP (Tony Rems) writes:
>Anyone know of one?  Preferably for Sun 68K platforms.
>I'd appreciate any pointers anyone could give me.
>(Please don't just say, "use adb").

OK, I won't.

USE EMACS!!!  8-)

Seriously, emacs allows you to edit binary files just like any other.
Be careful what files you edit and how you edit them, though -- if
you're screwing around with the string tables in executables, my
advice is DON'T, unless you can guarantee that EACH INDIVIDUAL STRING
remains the same length.  Otherwise, your executables will either
crash and burn, or your strings will be totally screwed.

If you really want to edit an executable, you'll need an editor
customized to read a.out format (which is generally different across
machines).  As I'm currently writing a full-blown VAX simulator that
will (eventually) run most "well-behavad" VAX binaries as-is, I can
give you some advice on how to parse binaries, but I'd suggest you
read the a.out(5) and associated man pages first.

(Btw, the VAX simulator is a "Graduate Computer Architecture" class
project, so those of you who think I'm nuts will be sure of it now.
8-)

If you don't have emacs, try Beav, a binary editor which was posted
recently to alt.sources.

Good luck!

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Adrian Ho, EECS (pronounced "eeks!") Dept.		Phone: (415) 642-5563
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