OD(1V)

NAME
od - octal, decimal, hexadecimal, and ascii dump

SYNOPSIS
od [ -format ] [ filename ] [ [+] offset[ .][b] [label] ]

SYSTEM V SYNOPSIS
/usr/5bin/od [arguments]

AVAILABILITY
The System V version of this command is available with the System V software installation option. Refer to for information on how to install optional software.

DESCRIPTION

od displays filename, or its standard input, in one or more dump formats as selected by the first argument. If the first argument is missing, -o (octal) is the default. Dumping continues until an EOF.

  Format Arguments

The meanings of the format argument characters are:

a   Interpret bytes as characters and display them with their ASCII names. If the p character is given also, bytes with even parity are underlined. If the P character is given, bytes with odd parity are underlined. Otherwise the parity bit is ignored.

b   Interpret bytes as unsigned octal.

c   Interpret bytes as ASCII characters. Certain non-graphic characters appear as C escapes: NUL=\0, BACKSPACE=\b, FORMFEED=\f, NEWLINE=\n, RETURN=\r, TAB=\t; others appear as 3-digit octal numbers. Bytes with the parity bit set are displayed in octal.

d   Interpret (short) words as unsigned decimal.

f   Interpret long words as floating point.

h   Interpret (short) words as unsigned hexadecimal.

i   Interpret (short) words as signed decimal.

l   Interpret long words as signed decimal.

o   Interpret (short) words as unsigned octal.

s[n]
    Look for strings of ASCII graphic characters, terminated with a null byte. n specifies the minimum length string to be recognized. By default, the minimum length is 3 characters.

v   Show all data. By default, display lines that are identical to the last line shown are not output, but are indicated with an `*' in column 1.

w[n]
    Specifies the number of input bytes to be interpreted and displayed on each output line. If w is not specified, 16 bytes are read for each display line. If n is not specified, it defaults to 32.

x   Interpret (short) words as hexadecimal.

An upper case format character implies the long or double precision form of the object.

The offset argument specifies the byte offset into the file where dumping is to commence. By default this argument is interpreted in octal. A different radix can be specified; if `.' is appended to the argument, then offset is interpreted in decimal. If offset begins with x or 0x, it is interpreted in hexadecimal. If b (B) is appended, the offset is interpreted as a block count, where a block is 512 (1024) bytes. If the filename argument is omitted, the offset argument must be preceded by `+'.

The radix of the displayed address will be the same as the radix of the offset, if specified; otherwise it will be octal.

label will be interpreted as a pseudo-address for the first byte displayed. It will be shown in () following the file offset. It is intended to be used with core images to indicate the real memory address. The syntax for label is identical to that for offset.

SYSTEM V DESCRIPTION

The s format interprets (short) words as signed decimal, rather than searching for strings; the S format searches for strings.

ENVIRONMENT

The environment variables LC_CTYPE, LANG, and LC_default control the character classification throughout od. On entry to od, these environment variables are checked in the following order: LC_CTYPE, LANG, and LC_default. When a valid value is found, remaining environment variables for character classification are ignored. For example, a new setting for LANG does not override the current valid character classification rules of LC_CTYPE. When none of the values is valid, the shell character classification defaults to the POSIX.1 “C” locale.

SEE ALSO
adb(1), dbx(1), dbxtool(1), locale(5), iso_8859_1(7)

BUGS

A file name argument cannot start with `+'. A hexadecimal offset cannot be a block count. Only one file name argument can be given.

It is an historical botch to require specification of object, radix, and sign representation in a single character argument.