vbindiff - hexadecimal file display and comparison vbindiff file1 [ file2 ] Visual Binary Diff (VBinDiff) displays files in hexadecimal and ASCII (or EBCDIC). It can also display two files at once, and highlight the differences between them. Unlike diff, it works well with large files (up to 4 GB).

Viewing files
Movement Keys ------------- Up Move one line (16 bytes) towards the beginning of the file Down Move one line (16 bytes) towards the end of the file Left Move one byte towards the beginning of the file Right Move one byte towards the end of the file PageUp Move one page towards the beginning of the file PageDn Move one page towards the end of the file Home Move to the beginning of the file End Move to the end of the (shorter) file F Search for a string or byte sequence G Move to a specified file position When displaying two files, both files move together. If bytes have been added or removed in one of the files, you can adjust the comparison by moving just one of the files. To move only the top file, press "T". To move only the bottom file, press "B". To return to moving both files, press the same key again. (The window at the bottom of the screen will indicate when you are moving only one file.) Other Keys ---------- Enter Move to the next difference between the files Space (same as Enter) C Toggle between ASCII and EBCDIC display E Edit currently displayed section of file Esc Exit VBinDiff Q Exit VBinDiff The "Enter" key will advance to the next difference between the files (after those already displayed on the screen). If there are no more differences, it moves to the end.

Line editor
The line editor is used to enter search strings and file positions. It uses the basic Emacs-style editing keys. Keys ----------------- Ctrl-B, Left Move the cursor one character left Ctrl-F, Right Move the cursor one character right Ctrl-A, Home Move to the beginning of the line Ctrl-E, End Move to the end of the line Ctrl-P, Up Move up in input history Ctrl-N, Down Move down in input history Ctrl-H, Backspace Delete the character to the left Ctrl-D, Delete Delete the character under the cursor Ctrl-K Delete from cursor to end of line Insert Toggle between insert & overstrike mode Enter Finished entering text Esc Abort the operation

Editing files
You can press "E" to edit the current file. When displaying two files, this edits the one in the top window, unless you are in "move bottom" mode. When editing, you can move the cursor around with the arrow keys. Use TAB to switch between entering hexadecimal or ASCII (or EBCDIC) characters. Press the Esc key when you are done. You will be given the choice to save or discard your changes then. If you are displaying two files, you can use the Enter key to copy a byte from the other file into the one you are editing. You cannot scroll through the file while editing, although you can save your changes and then move to a different part of the file. Also, you cannot insert or delete bytes, only change them. -L, --license Display license information for vbindiff -V, --version Display the version number --help Display help information Does not work properly with files over 4 gigabytes. It should be able to view the first 4 gigabytes ok, but the display only has room for 8 hex digits of file position, and the Goto box is also limited to 8 digits. VBinDiff is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. VBinDiff is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with VBinDiff (see the file COPYING); if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. Christopher J. Madsen <vbindiff .at. cjmweb.net> <http://www.cjmweb.net/vbindiff/>