> > > >---- Original Message ---- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: debian-user@lists.debian.org >Subject: RE: octal dump >Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:24:49 +0530 > >>Hello, >> >>I was trying to understand octal dumps today that can be obtained >>using od. But two questions cropped up: >> >>1. When would an octal dump be useful? Surely not in perusing text >> files?! And when people say they use octal (or hex) dump to >check >> and edit binary files, how do they learn to do so? >> >>2. I understand that od shows the file offsets in decimal if I say >'od >> -Ad'. But I find that the offset of the last line does not match >> with the size of the file given by 'du -h'. Why is that? >> >>I really am puzzled after bumping into this command by chance. Any >>comments would help. >> >>Thanks, >>Girish. >> >>-- >>Girish Kulkarni - Allahabad, India - http://girish.50webs.com >>
I've never used octal dumps (octal maps three bits into one octal "digit") but I've used hex a lot (maps four bits into one hex "digit"). Bit twiddlers are used to reading memory addresses which may be 32 or 64 bits as hex numbers-saves time and lessens the probability of a mistake. After doing it for a while the conversion to and from hex is done relatively automatically by the brain. Larry P.S. Even us old timers remember also reading machine code dumps in hex. I guess I don't go back far enough for octal >> >>-- >>To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] >ebian.org >> >> >> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
