Question:

• Is there a known tool to convert a file consisting of 2 byte Hex into ascii?

Note: - Maintain file offset listing in bytes

Example:

File contents:

00000000 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073
00000008 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054
00000016 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074
00000024 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065
00000032 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020
00000040 0054 0065 0073 0074 000a 0054 0065 0073
00000048 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054
00000056 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074
00000064 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065

Expected output

00000016 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 |est Test Test Te|
00000032 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 |st Test Test.Tes|
00000048 0074 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 |t Test Test Test|
00000064 0020 0054 0065 0073 0074 0020 0054 0065 | Test Test Test |

3 Answers

Your input file looks like it was produced using something like this:

hexdump -e '"%08_ad " 8/1 "%04x "' -e '"" 0/0 "" "\n"' original_file

Unfortunately, xxd -r can't deal with decimal offsets.

Here is a short Gnu AWK program to give you the output you're looking for:

gawk '{printf "%s |", $0; for (f=2; f<=9; f++) { c = strtonum("0x" $f); if (c >= 32 && c <= 126) printf "%c",c; else printf "."}; printf "|\n"}' input_file

If you're using an AWK other than gawk, you can use the strtonum() function here.

Here's another way to do the same thing as the gawk script above:

cut -c 11- input_file | sed 's/\<00//g' | xxd -r -p | hexdump -e '"%08_ad " 8/1 "%04x " ""' -e '" |" 8/1 "%_p" "|\n"'

If, instead, you want to convert your input file to text:

cut -c 11- input_file | xxd -r -p

2

iconv -f utf-16be -t ascii input.txt

1

To remove 0x00, on unix you can use:

tr -d '\0'

To display you can use object dump (od) and filter the output.

od -w$1 -v -t x1a $2

This gives you the raw output which you can then filter with awk (or other script).

od -w$1 -v -t x1a $2 | awk '$0~/^[0-9A-Fa-f]/ {for (i=2; i<=NF; i++) {printf "%2s ", $i; if (i%2) printf " "}; printf " "; next} {for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) {printf "%4s ", $i; if (!(i%2)) printf " "}; printf "\n"}'

Replace $2 with the amount of bytes you want displayed. Gives you the first step, you then need to filter every second byte (0x00)

I hope this helps.

The example below is on plain ascii, but doing so on a 2-byte file would be very much the same.

00000000 23 21 2f 62 69 6e 2f 73 68 0d 0a 0d 0a 23 20 6f |#!/bin/sh....# o|
00000010 64 20 2d 77 24 31 20 2d 76 20 2d 74 20 78 31 61 |d -w$1 -v -t x1a|
00000020 20 24 32 20 7c 20 61 77 6b 20 27 24 30 7e 2f 5e | $2 | awk '$0~/^|
00000030 5b 30 2d 39 41 2d 46 61 2d 66 5d 2f 20 7b 70 72 |[0-9A-Fa-f]/ {pr|
00000040 69 6e 74 66 20 22 25 73 22 2c 20 24 30 20 3b 20 |intf "%s", $0 ; |
00000050 6e 65 78 74 7d 20 7b 70 72 69 6e 74 7d 27 20 7c |next} {print}' ||
00000060 20 73 65 64 20 27 73 2f 5e 5b 30 2d 39 61 2d 66 | sed 's/^[0-9a-f|
00000070 41 2d 46 5d 2a 5b 20 09 5d 2a 2f 2f 27 20 7c 20 |A-F]*[ .]*//' | |
00000080 73 65 64 20 27 73 2f 5b 20 09 5d 5b 20 09 5d 2a |sed 's/[ .][ .]*|
00000090 2f 09 2f 67 27 0d 0a 6f 64 20 2d 77 24 31 20 2d |/./g'..od -w$1 -|
000000a0 76 20 2d 74 20 78 31 61 20 24 32 20 7c 20 61 77 |v -t x1a $2 | aw|
000000b0 6b 20 27 24 30 7e 2f 5e 5b 30 2d 39 41 2d 46 61 |k '$0~/^[0-9A-Fa|
000000c0 2d 66 5d 2f 20 7b 66 6f 72 20 28 69 3d 32 3b 20 |-f]/ {for (i=2; |
000000d0 69 3c 3d 4e 46 3b 20 69 2b 2b 29 20 7b 70 72 69 |i<=NF; i++) {pri|
000000e0 6e 74 66 20 22 25 32 73 20 22 2c 20 24 69 3b 20 |ntf "%2s ", $i; |
000000f0 69 66 20 28 69 25 32 29 20 70 72 69 6e 74 66 20 |if (i%2) printf |
00000100 22 20 22 7d 3b 20 70 72 69 6e 74 66 20 22 20 20 |" "}; printf " |
00000110 22 3b 20 6e 65 78 74 7d 20 7b 66 6f 72 20 28 69 |"; next} {for (i|
00000120 3d 31 3b 20 69 3c 3d 4e 46 3b 20 69 2b 2b 29 20 |=1; i<=NF; i++) |
00000130 7b 70 72 69 6e 74 66 20 22 25 34 73 20 22 2c 20 |{printf "%4s ", |
00000140 24 69 3b 20 69 66 20 28 21 28 69 25 32 29 29 20 |$i; if (!(i%2)) |
00000150 70 72 69 6e 74 66 20 22 20 20 22 7d 3b 20 70 72 |printf " "}; pr|
00000160 69 6e 74 66 20 22 5c 6e 22 7d 27 0d 0a |intf "\n"}'..|
0000016d

2

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