Vim edit binary file

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Additionally, vim allows you to edit just about anything including sqlite and all kinds of other stuff.

More info can be found at the official wiki by clicking here. Click here for more info on editing your. Click here for more info. Ubuntu Community Ask! Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How do I edit the binary or hexadecimal data of a file in Ubuntu?

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Khelben Khelben 2, 2 2 gold badges 10 10 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. I think it worths mentioning that after you make the changes you must go back to the normal mode before saving the changes. Is it possible to specify the byte order? I could find only for :! Using nvim. Info: After changing a hex code in the middle of a file and finally comparing it with "Beyond Compare" I found out that vim added 0A to the end of the file.

I think a hex editor should not do such things. Is there a plugin or other way that shows the connection between the bytes in hex format and decoded to ASCII? For example, when the cursor is at byte 54 it would highlight the T. Similar to how hexedit does it. Edit: this plugin should do it. Personally, I think you're probably better off using a real hex editor if you're editing binary files that often. Vim can sort of do the job, but it's obviously not designed for it, and if you ever write without :set binary Vim might destroy your binary files!

To view the content of a binary file in a hex view, open the file, switch on binary mode, and filter the buffer through the xxd command:. You can make changes in the left area edit the hex numbers , and when ready, filter through xxd -r , and finally save the file:.

If the filtering step after opening and before closing sounds tedious, and you often do this with files with. The first line will convert the buffer back from hex mode and the second line will save the file like normal. Note the -p option. This avoids all the extra printable and address fluff and just shows you the hex. Just omit -p if you want the extra context.

Be careful opening the file with Vim not in binary mode, as it will append a usually unintended LF character to the end of the file when you save it. Use the "bvi" editor. This looks like a handy little vim plugin that does the job using a temporary file which it writes back and forth for you automatically.

Some years ago I found a similar plugin which I adapted and improved for my own use. I've included the relevant code for that here, in case anyone wants it. It too is based on the xxd tool. I'm sure the GitHub version I linked above works better, but I haven't actually used it myself, so I figured I'd also post this one which I know for sure works.

The source for this other version was the vim wikia, specifically this page. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How to edit binary files with Vim? Ask Question.