HexDumps

Hex dumps are a representation of binary data in hexadecimal form, designed to make the contents of a file or memory region readable to humans without specialized tooling. A typical dump presents an offset address, a sequence of hex byte values, and an ASCII interpretation of those bytes on the same line.

Lines are usually 16 bytes long, though many tools allow different widths. The hex values show each byte in two hexadecimal digits; printable ASCII characters are displayed in a corresponding column. Non-printable bytes are often shown as a dot or other placeholder to preserve alignment.

Common tools include xxd, hexdump, od, and hd. They offer various formats and options, such as showing only the hexadecimal bytes, including or omitting the ASCII column, choosing the byte grouping, or choosing the base for the address offset. Some utilities produce canonical formats that are easy to parse by other software, while others are intended for interactive inspection.

Uses of hex dumps include examining file formats and network packets, debugging programs that read or write binary data, detecting embedded strings or headers, and verifying data integrity during transfers. They are widely used in computing for quick inspection, but large dumps can be difficult to interpret without additional context or parsing.