ByteExplorer

ByteExplorer ByteExplorer is a small linux only cli tool that I banged together over a weekend. It has a small text user interface (using my library tui.h).

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Example
• Features
• Scripting Language
• Contributing
• License

Installation

ByteExplorer is easy to set up and run. Follow these steps to get started:

1. Clone the ByteExplorer repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/dleiferives/byte_explorer.git

2. Compile the code, ensuring that you have the necessary dependencies, including terminfo and possibly 'ncurses':

   gcc -o byteexplorer main.c tui.c script_manager.c -ltinfo -lncurses

3. Run ByteExplorer:

   ./byteexplorer

   you can optionally pass in a file as a paramater, and it will set it as the file automatically

Usage

ByteExplorer provides an interactive command-line interface for exploring binary files. Once you have opened a binary file, you can navigate through it, view hex data, and execute various commands to look at the data.

To get started, run ByteExplorer with a binary file as an argument:

./byteexplorer

The ByteExplorer tui will appear, allowing you to enter commands and perform actions on the binary file

Example

If you have a file "data_dump" You would run ByteExplorer

./a.out

Then when the tui pops up you would enter the following commands:

f data_dump
o
r 512
c 0
phl 512 16

That would display the first 512 bytes of the file. If the file is shorter than 512 bytes, it will print 0s.

Visual Example

Features

• Hexadecimal View: View binary data in a hexadecimal format, making it easy to inspect the content of the file.
• ASCII Output: Display the ASCII representation of the binary data, allowing you to see text and characters in the file.
• File Navigation: Navigate through the binary file using commands to move the cursor.
• Scripting Support: Execute custom commands and scripts to automate tasks and perform specific actions on the file.

Scripting Language

ByteExplorer includes a simple scripting language that allows you to create custom commands and automate repetitive tasks. The scripting language is designed for ease of use, with each command starting with a unique letter. Here are some of the available commands:

• f s: Set the current file to s.
• o: Open the current file for reading and navigation.
• r #: Read the next # bytes from the file.
• ph #: Print the next # bytes in hexadecimal format.
• phl # #: Print the next # bytes in groups of # characters.
• pa: Print the entire file as raw ASCII text.
• c #: Set the cursor to position #.
• w s: Write s to the screen until a newline or '\0' character is encountered.

You can create custom scripts by combining these commands to perform various operations on binary files.

Contributing

Contributions to ByteExplorer are welcome! If you have suggestions, bug reports, or would like to contribute code or features, please feel free to open an issue or create a pull request. Your input is valuable in improving this tool.

Happy exploring!