On Thu 23 Jan 2020 at 15:20:44 (-0600), Richard Owlett wrote: > On 01/22/2020 07:12 AM, Richard Owlett wrote: > > I'm running Debian 9.8 with MATE desktop. > > I'm exploring a data file with the intention of eventually parsing > > it in a useful fashion. > > > > Just downloaded ghex. I like the display format. > > I posted in two fora (here and a LUG mailing list). > *NOBODY* picked up on two key features I presumed obvious ;/ > 1. For my problem domain, GUI is obvious way to go: > a. Intuitive (IMMHO) connection of a selection in BOTH > the ASCII an HEX views
I've no idea what you mean by a selection. > b. Presumption that GUI is more intuitive for "quick n dirty" No idea what you're talking about. When I examine a hex file, I run a program to dump it to standard output which I pipe into less. GUIs usually have buttons and listboxes and things. I'm not sure what you want them to do. > c. I gave an example of a GUI application I had downloaded > as it had appeared to meet many of my needs/preferences. Did you? You wrote that you liked the display format of ghex, from which I presumed that it's a program for displaying hex. Why would I assume that it's a GUI? A quick grep on my system shows that I've never installed any package containing the string "ghex" (going back as far as hamm in 1998). What I've missed … > 2. I repeatedly mentioned/implied *DISPLAY*. You did mention "display" twice, hence I chose a program that dumps. > I never even hinted at editing. No, but you said you wanted to search. I outlined the problems with searching a dumped representation (that has newlines inserted into the display to make it readable) which can prevent searches from working wherever the sequence of target bytes cross line boundaries. $ hexdump -n 200 -v -e '/20 "%04_ax " "%4_ad: "' -e '20/1 "%02X "' -e '/20 " |"' -e '20/1 "%_p"' -e '/20 "|\n"' mc/Iguazupan.ogv 0000 0: 4F 67 67 53 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 31 D3 E3 2B 00 00 |OggS..........1..+..| 0014 20: 00 00 81 A2 E3 A0 01 2A 80 74 68 65 6F 72 61 03 02 01 00 28 |.......*.theora....(| 0028 40: 00 1E 00 02 80 00 01 E0 00 00 00 05 C4 90 00 00 7F 37 00 00 |.................7..| 003c 60: 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 94 C0 4F 67 67 53 00 02 00 00 00 00 |..........OggS......| 0050 80: 00 00 00 00 80 EF 93 50 00 00 00 00 B1 CC 5E 28 01 1E 01 76 |.......P......^(...v| 0064 100: 6F 72 62 69 73 00 00 00 00 01 80 3E 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 BB |orbis......>........| 0078 120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 A9 01 4F 67 67 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |........OggS........| 008c 140: 00 00 80 EF 93 50 01 00 00 00 7D CA 9E 40 0E 8A FF FF FF FF |.....P....}..@......| 00a0 160: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF C5 03 76 6F 72 62 69 73 2A 00 00 00 |..........vorbis*...| 00b4 180: 58 69 70 68 2E 4F 72 67 20 6C 69 62 56 6F 72 62 69 73 20 49 |Xiph.Org libVorbis I| $ Thus, searching for '76 6F 72 62 69 73' will find the second occurrence of 'vorbis' rather than the first; hence my recommendation that you perform the searches with an editor on the original file, which solves that problem. What's wrong with an editor? You don't have to actually *change* anything in the file just because it's called an "editor". > > Its tools are inconvenient. > > IOW > I *ABSOLUTELY* require DECIMAL arithmetic for offsets/location. > I observe a "bug/undocumented feature/operator error" in search. Again, no idea what you're referring to here. > [I have "homework" to do ;] You certainly have, if you want to perform 4 (below) on a simultaneous display of hex and ascii without using an editor (which would make 3 a lot easier too). > > I need to: > > 1. Simultaneously display in _both_ HEX and ASCII format > > 2. Know the current offset in *DECIMAL* format. > > {knowing the offset also in HEX might be nice} > > 3. Goto to an offset - expressed in DECIMAL. > > 4. Advance a specific number of bytes. > > 5. Search for an ASCII string. > > 6. Search for arbitrary sequence of bytes expressed as HEX. > > > > Suggested tool(s) in Debian repository? > > TIA Cheers, David.