bpe(1)

NAME

bpe - examine and patch binary files

SYNOPSIS

bpe  allows  a  file to be searched and modified in either
ASCII or hexadecimal. Each buffer  is  displayed  in  both
modes.

DESCRIPTION

ArrayN - Display next sector
P - Display previous sector
+ - Scroll forward 1 lines
- - Scroll back 1 lines
e - Edit ASCII portion of file
E - Edit binary portion of file
W - Write modified sector back to disk
Q - Quit Program
? - help

Editing a file

Enter an editing mode by typing 'e' (for ASCII edit) or
'E' for hex edit. The cursor may be moved either by the
arrow keys or the vi-style ^H, ^J, ^K, ^L keys, depending
on compilation options. Place the cursor on the byte to
change and type either a printing ASCII character or two
digit hex value. Exit either edit mode by typing ^E. When
you are satisfied with your editing, enter the W command
to write the modified portion of the file back to disk.

Searching for data

You may search for hex data by giving the h command and
entering a string of hex digits. The search procedes for
ward from the current location until a matching string is
found. The display is adjusted to put the first byte at
the top of the screen (but see configuration options). If
no pattern is specified the previous pattern is used.

To search for a string, enter the F (for find) command, or
the vi style / command. At the prompt type in a string and
press return. The search procedes as with a hex byte
search. If you wish to repeat a string search, enter the F
command again and press return. This will repeat the
search for the previous string. If the starting position
has not been adjusted the search will start one character
past the location of the last occurence found.

Configuration options

The makefile contains configuration option, identifiable
by comments. These are all at the top of the makefile. If
your curses supports KEYPAD definition for your terminal,
you may use the cursor keys on the keypad. This is
generally only found in SysV systems with termlib versions
of curses. If you don't have that feature the NOKEYPAD
option will allow use of vi style cursor keys.

When searching, if you prefer to see the pattern in con
text you may set the CLINES to the number of lines of con
text displayed before the pattern found. This may cause
problems doing hex searches. In addition, if you want the
display to start on a 16 byte boundary, to match od or hd
output, you may enable the ALLIGN option.

WARNINGS

Illegal commands are flagged as such.

SEE ALSO

od, hd, possibly adb.

DIAGNOSTICS LIMITATIONS

If the l or L commands are used with no pattern specified
before a pattern has been specified the value zero will be
used.

AUTHOR

Original author:

Andreas Pleschutznig
Teichhofweg 2
8044 Graz
Austria

Contributions by:

maart@cs.vu.nl

v1.2 features added by:

Bill Davidsen, Box 8 KW-C206, Schenectady NY 12345

Comments and bug reports to:

andy@mssx (mcvax!tuvie!mssx!andy)

Bugs in features documented as being added in v1.2 to

davidsen@crdos1.uucp (uunet!crd.ge.com!davidsen)

LOCAL BPE(1)