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From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Editing binary files with GNU Emacs
Message-ID: <21512@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 9 Sep 88 14:15:58 GMT
References: <1415@spp2.UUCP>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science
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In article <1415@spp2.UUCP> baur@spp2.UUCP (Steven L. Baur) writes:
>I just discovered that it is perfectly reasonable to edit binary
>files with GNU Emacs.  (I have successfully edited the emacs
>executable and had it work).

Once, an operator here, when trying to take a Sun server to
single-user for level-0 dumps, noticed that there were still processes
running that he couldn't kill.  One in particular was named "init".
He decided to fix it by `mv /etc/init /etc/init.foo`.  He fixed it,
all right :-(

GNU Emacs persuaded a kernel to look for a such-named program, rather
than the more conventional /etc/init.  It saved the night.

>Is a binary.el in the works?

There's been some discussion of a mode that presents a file much like
od(1), but I haven't seen any yet.  Progress reports, anyone?
-=-
Zippy sez,								--Bob
.  ich bin in einem dusenjet ins jahr 53 vor chr...
 ich lande im antiken Rom...  einige gladiatoren spielen scrabble...
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