Chapter 40. Hex Dump Unlocks Mysteries
The hex dump utility may not have been designed with an education goal in mind, or as an exploring tool, but it does a great job at both.
If you have ever been curious about what mysteries lurk within an executable binary, a word processing document, or even an image, hex dump can help you scratch that itch.
As a side benefit you will gain familiarity with the hexadecimal or base 16 numbering system, which is often referred to simply as hex.
To get started, try generating a hex dump of the file you want to examine without any syntax options, using a command like this:
A Hex Dump
linux~>hexdump /usr/bin/hexdump. The first few lines of the output should look something like this: 0000000 457f 464c 0101 0001 0000 ... |
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