Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 15:00:26 +1100 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> To: "Jason C. Wells" <jasoncwells@fastmail.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Analyze and Edit a Binary File Message-ID: <20150217040026.GA91708@eureka.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <1424140628.3400388.228383569.629B0401@webmail.messagingengine.com> References: <1424140628.3400388.228383569.629B0401@webmail.messagingengine.com>
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--sdtB3X0nJg68CQEu Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Monday, 16 February 2015 at 18:37:08 -0800, Jason C. Wells wrote: > > I use some engineering software called Catia. The files produced by > Catia encode a software version number. If the version number is > greater than the version of the installed software, Catia refuses to > open the file. This is annoying in the extreme. Especially if you want > to share files in the spirit of open source. If the files that I create > are newer than the Catia version of my audience, then my audience can't > use my files. > > My question to my more knowledgeable computer geek friends: How do I > analyze and edit an arbitrary binary file? Those are two different questions, of course. You know the version number; if it's relatively complicated (2.2.7.1, for example), it may be stored as character text. In that case, there will be relatively few false positives if you search for the text. If it's simple (2, for example), you'd need to run the software in a debugger and find where it does the comparison. That's much more difficult. As for editing: Emacs, of course :-) Seriously, it does work. I've used it on occasion, and at least one package I've seen asks you to edit binary files with Emacs as part of the build process. Just make very sure not to change the length of the file. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog@FreeBSD.org for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft MUA reports problems, please read http://tinyurl.com/broken-mua --sdtB3X0nJg68CQEu Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAlTivNkACgkQIubykFB6QiNtlwCfb3SOPNEWL2wWOtmd4vXFzXjs Cb8AoK4gf/8XKs5U4g7U/a7nC5JpDmGp =r5zb -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --sdtB3X0nJg68CQEu--
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