--- name: "bbe" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "bbe" version: "0.2.2-6" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/bbe" --- # bbe(1) binary block editor ## NAME bbe - binary block editor ## SYNOPSIS **bbe** \[*options*\]... ## DESCRIPTION **bbe** is a sed-like editor for binary files. It performs binary transformations on the blocks of input stream. ## OPTIONS **bbe** accepts the following options: - **-b**, **--block=*BLOCK*** Block definition. - **-e**, **--expression=*COMMAND*** Add the COMMAND to the commands to be executed. - **-f**, **--file=*script-file*** Add the contents of script-file to commands. - **-o**, **--output=*name*** Write output to *name* instead of standard output. - **-s**, **--suppress** Suppress normal output, print only block contents. - **-?**, **--help** List all available options and their meanings. - **-V**, **--version** Show version of program. *BLOCK* can be defined as: - N:M Where *N*'th byte starts a *M* bytes long block (first byte is 0). - :M Block length in input stream is *M*. - /start/:M String *start* starts *M* bytes long block. - /start/:/stop/ String *start* starts the block and block ends at string *stop*. - /start/: String *start* starts the block and block will end at next occurrence of *start*. Only the first *start* is included to the block. - :/stop/ Block starts at the beginning of input stream (or at the end of previous block) and ends at the next occurrence of *stop*. String *stop* will be included to the block. Special value '$' of *M* means the end of stream. Default value for block is 0:$, meaning the whole input stream. Both *start* and *stop* strings are included in block. Nonprintable characters can be escaped as - \\nnn decimal - \\xnn hexadecimal - \\0nnn octal Character '\\' can be escaped as '\\\\'. Escape codes '\\a','\\b','\\t','\\n','\\v','\\f','\\r' and '\\;' can also be used. Length (*N* and *M*) can be defined as a decimal (n), a hexadecimal (xn) or an octal (0n) value. ## COMMAND SYNOPSIS **bbe** has two type of commands: block and byte commands, both are always related to current block. That means that the input stream outside of the blocks remains untouched. ### Block commands - D \[*n*\] Delete the *n*'th block. Without *n*, all found blocks are deleted from the output stream. - I *string* Insert the string *string* before the block. - A *string* Append the string *string* at the end of block. - J *n* Skip *n* blocks, before executing commands after this command. - L *n* Leave all blocks unmodified starting from block number *n*. Affects only commands after this command. - N Before printing a block, the file name in which the block starts is printed. - F *f* Before printing a block, the input stream offset at the beginning of the block is printed. *f* can be H, D or O for Hexadecimal, Decimal or Octal format of offset. - B *f* Before printing a block, the block number is printed (first block == 1) *f* can be H, D or O for Hexadecimal, Decimal or Octal format of block number. - \> *file* Before printing a block, the contents of file *file* are printed. - \< *file* After printing a block, the contents of file *file* are printed. ### Byte commands *n* in byte commands is the offset from the beginning of current block (starts from zero). - r *n* *string* Replace bytes starting at position *n* with string *string*. - i *n* *string* Insert *string* starting at position *n*. - p *format* The contents of block is printed in format defined by *format*. *format* can have any of the formats H, D, O, A and B for Hexadecimal, Decimal, Octal, Ascii and Binary. - s/*search*/*replace*/ Replace all occurrences of *search* with *replace*. - y/*source*/*dest*/ Translate bytes in *source* to the corresponding bytes in *dest*. *Source* and *dest* must be the same length. - d *n* *m*\|\* Delete *m* bytes starting from the offset *n*. If \* is defined instead of *m*, then all bytes starting from *n* are deleted. - c *from* *to* Convert bytes from format *from* to *to*. Currently supported formats are: - BCD Binary coded decimal - ASC Ascii - j *n* Commands after the j-command are ignored for first *n* bytes of the block. - l *n* Commands after the l-command are ignored from *n*'th byte of the block. - w *file* Write bytes from the current block to file *file*. Commands before w-command have what will be written. %B or %nB in *file* will be replaced by current block number. n in %nB is field length, leading zero in n causes the block number to be left padded with zeroes. - & *c* Performs binary **and** with *c*. - \| *c* Performs binary **or** with *c*. - ^ *c* Performs binary **xor** with *c*. - \~ Performs binary negation. - u *n* *c* All bytes from start of the block to offset *n* are replaced by *c*. - f *n* *c* All bytes starting from offset *n* to end of the block are replaced by *c*. - x Exchange the contents of nibbles (half an octet) of bytes. Nonvisible characters in strings can be escaped same way as in block definition strings. Character '/' in s and y commands can be any visible character. Note that the D, A, I, F, B, c, s, i, y, p, \<, \> and d commands cause the length of input and output streams to be different. ## EXAMPLES - bbe -e "s/c:\\\\temp\\\\data1.txt/c:\\\\temp\\\\data2.txt/" file1 all occurrences of "c:\\temp\\data1.txt" in file file1 are changed to "c:\\temp\\data2.txt" - bbe -b 0420:16 -e "r 4 \\x12\\x4a" file1 Two bytes starting at fifth byte of a 16 byte long block starting at offset 0420 (octal) in file1 are changed to hexadecimal values 12 and 4a. - bbe -b :16 -e "A \\x0a" file1 Newline is added after every block, block length is 16. ## SEE ALSO [**sed**(1)](/sed/1.md). ## AUTHOR Timo Savinen \