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Thread: convert binary to text

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    convert binary to text

    Hi,
    I wnt to convert binary to text in linux.. cn anybody help me.. thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    Chicago
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    Re: convert binary to text

    You will have to be more specific. Do you have a binary file which you want to search for ASCII strings? Do you have a text file containing binary data as 1's and 0's which you need to convert to ASCII text? Do you want to convert binary data to a text friendly representation such as base64 encoding?

  3. #3
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    Dec 2009
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    Re: convert binary to text

    Yeah i know this is an old thread but I've had success with this and also have a question. Now I could use some CLI tools w/bash script to achieve my ends here but I'm curious if there is already a linux tool for this. I can take a binary file and see the output in ascii text using hexdump, aka hd:
    Code:
    hexdump -C binary-file
    However stdout looks something like this:
    Code:
    000000a0  30 e3 d3 60 e1 00 aa aa  03 00 00 00 08 00 45 00  |0..`..........E.|
    000000b0  00 8f bd 2a 40 00 6e 06  fb 0b 4d ff 44 4b c0 a8  |...*@.n...M.DK..|
    000000c0  01 40 ba fd b8 e5 1f ca  95 17 49 4f b8 22 50 18  |.@........IO."P.|
    000000d0  44 10 94 6a 00 00 9c ca  f7 49 a2 f0 4f 91 59 54  |D..j.....I..O.YT|
    000000e0  04 ed 05 08 6c d4 3d 3a  96 82 51 f3 8f 33 d6 7d  |....l.=:..Q..3.}|
    000000f0  ad 0a 7f a6 ae cf 24 34  ee ff 24 af 63 ae 5d dd  |......$4..$.c.].|
    00000100  6c 90 ab d2 82 4e 86 d2  b5 6f 8b fd 4b d1 7c 68  |l....N...o..K.|h|
    00000110  0a 67 6e ee 73 6f 34 8c  44 8d 6f a3 87 96 04 35  |.gn.so4.D.o....5|
    00000120  f6 ea e8 c8 82 cf 2c fd  4e 65 64 0f 3e 8c 44 54  |......,.Ned.>.DT|
    00000130  c5 6e 91 17 01 4d 0e 75  58 4e f4 95 9d 84 18 f2  |.n...M.uXN......|
    00000140  c3 36 d4 ff 4d 24 7a 0b  00 0a 00 00 00 0a 00 00  |.6..M$z.........|
    00000150  00 d4 00 00 00 00 24 2b  28 04 e6 36 d4 ff 4d 40  |......$+(..6..M@|
    00000160  7a 0b 00 4c 00 00 00 4c  00 00 00 08 41 34 00 98  |z..L...L....A4..|
    00000170  2c be 0b ec 31 00 24 2b  28 04 e6 98 2c be 0b ec  |,...1.$+(...,...|
    00000180  31 80 59 39 2e 1b 00 aa  aa 03 00 00 00 08 00 45  |1.Y9...........E|
    I don't want the hexadecimal data, I just want the ascii on the right. Any tools or proper tool use for this? thanks in advance.

    PS, I apologize in advance if i'm "thread hijacking" but I figured it was along the topic and didn't want to start a new thread.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    Sevierville, Tennessee
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    1,312
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    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: convert binary to text

    Have you taken a look at t1utils in the archives?
    Gary
    Linux since 1995, Ubuntu since 2006

  5. #5
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    Re: convert binary to text

    Quote Originally Posted by dFlyer View Post
    Have you taken a look at t1utils in the archives?
    i'll check that out, thanks.

    edit:
    that would suit my needs except it only works for certain file types. I just want to convert the binary data to ascii in general. not specifically for an adobe file or otherwise.
    Last edited by d3v1150m471c; June 22nd, 2011 at 12:27 AM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Beans
    76
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: convert binary to text

    The "hexdump" program allows you pretty broad control over your output format, but it may take some experimenting to get the format you want. Here are some examples:
    Code:
    $ cat ./sample_file.txt
    This is line 1.
    This is line 2.
    This is line 3.
    $ hexdump -e '"%08.8_ao " 32/1 "%_p" "\n" ' ./sample_file.txt
    00000000 This is line 1..This is line 2..
    00000040 This is line 3..
    $ hexdump -e '"%08.8_ao " 8/1 "%3_c " "\n" ' ./sample_file.txt
    00000000   T   h   i   s       i   s    
    00000010   l   i   n   e       1   .  \n
    00000020   T   h   i   s       i   s    
    00000030   l   i   n   e       2   .  \n
    00000040   T   h   i   s       i   s    
    00000050   l   i   n   e       3   .  \n
    If all you want to do is find the ASCII strings embedded in a binary file, the "strings" command is your friend.

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