hexcompare(1)

📦 version 1.0.4, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

hexcompare 💖

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for hexcompare — that's the tool name, and it lives in section 1 of the manual (you know, the "user commands" section, the one where all the stuff you actually type lives 💅). Buckle up, it's giving forensics girlie and it is iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

hexcompare — compare and identify changes in binary files 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

hexcompare file1 file2

that's it. two files. that's the whole vibe. 😌

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so hexcompare is a tool that compares two binary or ASCII files, and the way it does it is chef's kiss: it splits your screen into two halves. yes, literally two. it's giving split-screen main character energy.

it's useful for forensics cases, and for identifying whether files are identical or just similar 👑 (spoiler: there's a difference, and this tool will show you exactly where).

🎀 FEATURES 🎀

the moment the program starts, you'll see the screen divided in two. let's break it down, because the top part and the bottom part are doing very different jobs.

🧚 the top part: the "overview"

this is a block diagram, and it represents the differences between both files at a given offset. think of it as a little map of your data 🗺️✨

  • a blue block means the bytes it represents are the same in both files 💙
  • a red block means those bytes are different ❤️🔥
  • a grey block means neither file has any data at that offset (it's giving empty, it's giving void, it's giving nothing to see here) 🩶

each block represents a number of bytes. how many bytes? that depends on your terminal window size, bestie — bigger window, more bytes per block, no cap. 📐

🍓 the bottom part: the raw data

the bottom half of the screen contains the raw data at a specified offset. that's where you go when you wanna see the receipts 🧾✨

💅 COMMANDS 💅

here's your keyboard-and-mouse cheat sheet, queen:

  • "m" key — switches the display between the data shown in hex and ASCII. toggle to your heart's content 🔁
  • "q" key — press it to quit the program. bye bestie 👋
  • "v" key — makes the data view of the lower part of the screen take up the whole terminal. full screen, full drama 🖥️✨
  • Arrow keys — use them to go from block to block in the overview. navigation but make it cute ⬆️⬇️⬅️➡️
  • Page Up key — go up lines of hex/ASCII data 📜
  • Page Down key — go down lines of hex/ASCII data 📜

🐭 mouse stuff

mouse also works!! you can use it to navigate the block diagram "overview". it's giving point-and-click slay:

  • single-clicking on a block will load in the offset represented by that block, and show the data that's found there. one click, instant data, we love efficiency 💖
  • double-clicking on a block will bring up a more detailed hex view of the specified location. two clicks, extra detail, obsessed 😭✨

👑 AUTHOR 👑

hexcompare was written by Julien McAride and others. shoutout to the whole squad 🫶

this manual page was written by Raphael Mota Ramos <raphaelmota.ti@gmail.com> for the Debian project — but may be used by others 💌 (generous queen behaviour, honestly)

💀 quick vibe check: everything above is exactly what the page says. no invented flags, no made-up defaults. if it's not here, it's not in the manual. periodt.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one's hexcompare version 1.0.4 🌈 and it was dated March 2016 — vintage but still eating, fr fr. mwah 💋🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from