Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!agate!adrianho From: adrianho@barkley.watt.berkeley.edu (Adrian J Ho) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: PD binary or hex editor for UNIX Message-ID: Date: 7 Mar 91 07:41:42 GMT References: <3422@unisoft.UUCP> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 38 In-Reply-To: rembo@unisoft.UUCP's message of 7 Mar 91 02:43:57 GMT In article <3422@unisoft.UUCP> rembo@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! -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adrian Ho, EECS (pronounced "eeks!") Dept. Phone: (415) 642-5563 UC Berkeley adrianho@barkley.berkeley.edu Domain: sesame-street (telly,bigbird,snuffy,oscar,kermit,bert,grover,barkley) Favorite expression: "There's no business like monkey business."