convert a binary file to ascii using hexdump

I have a binary file with data stored as two-byte big-endian 16-bit words. We need to extract the values in the file and print them in decimal ASCII format, so to obtain numbers in the 0-655535 range. let’s create the sample file: $ echo -en "\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08" > file.bin and show its content in binary form: $ hexdump -C file.bin 00000000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 |........| 00000008 to get the desired output we can use the powerful, but little documented format string option of hexdump: ...

October 20, 2016 · Andrea Manzini