The od - Dumping File In Various Formats

od dump a file which can ASN/Bianry to the standard output in a format specified by command line options. The default format for od is octal words.

To dump a file to standard output in different formats including octal, decimal, floating point, hexadecimal, and character format:

> od [options] file
where common options include:
-b : octal dump
-d-D : decimal (-d) or long decimal (-D) dump
-s-S : signed decimal (-s) and signed long decimal (-S) dump
-f-F : floating point (-f) or long (double) floating point (-F) dump
-x-X : hexadecimal (-x) or long hexadecimal (-X) dump
-c-C : character (single byte) or long character dump (single or multi-byte characters, as determined by locale settings) dump

-->in elaborately,
od recognize two syntaxes. With the first form, you can specify only a single input file. If no file is specified, the standard input is read. The offset operand indicates the offset, in bytes, in the file where output should begin. When no file is specified, then the offset must be preceded by a plus sign (+) to distinguish it from a file name. If the offset is followed by a period (.), offset is considered to be a decimal number; otherwise, it is considered to be an octal number for od . If the offset is followed with a b, it is multiplied by the block size of 512 bytes. If the -A option is not specified, then the format of the offset determines the format of the address; that is, if the offset is decimal, the file seek addresses are displayed in decimal.

If you choose the second (POSIX-compliant) form, od display the files listed on the command line one at a time. If no file appears on the command line, od read the standard input.

Usage: od [option ]...[FILE]... or: od --traditional [FILE] [[+]OFFSET [[+]LABEL]]

All arguments to long options are mandatory for short options.

-A, --address-radix=RADIX : decide how file offsets are printed

-j, --skip-bytes=BYTES : skip BYTES input bytes first
-N, --read-bytes=BYTES : limit dump to BYTES input bytes
-s, --strings[=BYTES] : output strings of at least BYTES graphic chars
-t, --format=TYPE : select output format or formats
-v, --output-duplicates : do not use * to mark line suppression
-w, --width[=BYTES] : output BYTES bytes per output line
--traditional : accept arguments in traditional form
--help : display this help and exit
--version : output version information and exit

Traditional format specifications may be intermixed; they accumulate:
-a same as -t a : select named characters
-b same as -t oC : select octal bytes
-c same as -t c : select ASCII characters or backslash escapes
-d same as -t u2 : select unsigned decimal shorts
-f same as -t fF : select floats
-h same as -t x2 : select hexadecimal shorts
-i same as -t d2 : select decimal shorts
-l same as -t d4 : select decimal longs
-o same as -t o2 : select octal shorts
-x same as -t x2 : select hexadecimal shorts

For older syntax (second call format), OFFSET means -j OFFSET. LABEL is the pseudo-address at first byte printed, incremented when dump is progressing. For OFFSET and LABEL, a 0x or 0X prefix indicates hexadecimal, suffixes may be for octal and b for multiply by 512.

TYPE is made up of one or more of these specifications:
a named character
c ASCII character or backslash escape
d[SIZE] signed decimal, SIZE bytes per integer
f[SIZE] floating point, SIZE bytes per integer
o[SIZE] octal, SIZE bytes per integer
u[SIZE] unsigned decimal, SIZE bytes per integer
x[SIZE] hexadecimal, SIZE bytes per integer

• SIZE is a number. For TYPE in doux, SIZE may also be C for sizeof(char), S for sizeof(short), I for sizeof(int) or L for sizeof(long). If TYPE is f, SIZE may also be F for sizeof(float), D for sizeof(double) or L for sizeof(long double).
• RADIX is d for decimal, o for octal, x for hexadecimal or n for none. BYTES is hexadecimal with 0x or 0X prefix, it is multiplied by 512 with b suffix, by 1024 with k and by 1048576 with m. Adding a z suffix to any type adds a display of printable characters to the end of each line of output. --string without a number implies 3. --width without a number implies 32. By default, od uses -A o -t d2 -w 16.

DIAGNOSTICS
Possible exit status values are:
0 Successful completion.
1 Failure due to any of the following:
— inability to open the input file
— badly formed offset
— an offset that is not a multiple of 512
— seek or read error on the input file
2 Failure due to any of the following:
— invalid command line argument
— the wrong number of command line arguments
— invalid format character
— invalid size modifier for format character