tinyxxd(1)

✨ tinyxxd — the hex dump bestie you didn't know you needed ✨

okay so before we even get into it: this is the manual page for tinyxxd, a whole entire utility that lives in your terminal and makes binary files make sense. she dumps hex, binary, and ASCII, and she does it with color 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

tinyxxd — a hexadecimal, binary, and ASCII dump utility with color support. literally what it says on the tin, bestie 💖

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

tinyxxd [options] [infile [outfile]]

tinyxxd -r [-s [-]offset] [-c cols] [-ps] [infile [outfile]]

two whole modes, one iconic little tool. first one dumps, second one un-dumps (yes, that's a word now) 🎀

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so tinyxxd is a versatile utility for creating hex, binary, and ASCII dumps from binary files. like, you point her at a file and she shows you what's actually inside it, no cap 🔥

she can also reverse these dumps back into binary form, which is giving "un-bake the cake" energy and honestly? iconic.

on top of all that she supports various output formats, including C include files and PostScript. yes, PostScript, in this economy 😭

and the best part: tinyxxd enhances readability by optionally colorizing the output, and she respects the NO_COLOR environment variable like the respectful queen she is 🫶

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

here's the full menu, no skips, no summaries, we're doing all of them because I love you:

• -a | -autoskip — toggle autoskip mode. in this mode, a single * replaces lines that consist only of zeros. default is off. she's lowkey shy by default 🌸
• -b | -bits — output a binary digit dump instead of hexadecimal. this option is incompatible with -ps, so pick a lane bestie 💀
• -c cols | -cols cols — format the output to include cols octets per line. default is 16 (12 in C include style, 30 in PostScript). numbers matter, memorize them 🎀
• -C | -capitalize — capitalize variable names in C include file style (-i). go off, uppercase 👑
• -d — show the offset in decimal instead of hexadecimal. for the girlies who think in base 10 🍓
• -e — create a little-endian dump. this option is incompatible with -ps, -i, and -r. do not try it. I'm serious 🙈
• -g bytes | -groupsize bytes — group output into octets of bytes size in the normal output mode. default is 2 (4 for little-endian). group chat but for bytes 💜
• -E | -EBCDIC — display the characters in EBCDIC encoding instead of ASCII. she contains multitudes ✨
• -h | -help | --help — print a summary of the options. when in doubt, ask for help, it's literally free 🫶
• -i | -include — output in C include file style. your C files are gonna eat so good 🔥
• -l len | -len len — stop after len octets. boundaries, we love them 💅
• -n name | -name name — set the variable name used in C include output (-i). naming things is the hard part, she gets it 😭
• -o offset — add offset to the displayed file position. shift the vibe ✨
• -p | -ps | -postscript | -plain — output in PostScript plain hexdump style. four whole aliases, she's flexible 🎀
• -r | -revert — reverse operation: convert (or patch) hexdump into binary. the un-dump. the remix. the sequel 🌈
• -R when — colorize the output. when can be 'always', 'auto', or 'never'. default: 'auto'. yes bestie, you control the glitter 🦋
• -s [+][-]seek — start at seek bytes absolute (or relative, with + prefix) in the input file. when used with -r, the offset is added to file positions found in the hex dump. deep dive energy ⭐
• -t — append a terminating NUL byte to the array in C include file style (-i). the little periodt at the end of the sentence 💖
• -u — use uppercase letters for hexadecimal output. default is lowercase. freedom of case, honestly 👑
• -v | -version — show version information. she'll tell you who she is 🧚

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🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

create a standard hex dump with color:

tinyxxd file.bin

create a little-endian hex dump:

tinyxxd -e file.bin

output in binary digit format:

tinyxxd -b file.bin

create a C include file:

tinyxxd -i file.bin > file.h

reverse a hex dump into binary:

tinyxxd -r dump.hex > file.bin

look at all those little one-liners popping off 🍓

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🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

• 0 — success. we love a happy ending 💖
• 1-5 — various errors (e.g., file I/O errors, invalid arguments). not every day is a slay day 😭

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🧚

• NO_COLOR — if set, disables color output. sometimes you just want the plain vibe, and that's valid 🫶

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💀 CAVEATS 💀

little-endian dumps

the -e option only affects the hexadecimal representation and not the ASCII (or EBCDIC) characters on the right side of the dump. so like, half the dump is byte-flipped and half is just sitting there being normal. that's not a bug, that's the design, bestie.

the option is incompatible with -r, -p, or -i.

reverse operation (-r)

the reverse operation may encounter difficulties with lines that are not formatted as expected. it will skip over non-conforming lines and continue processing. so she's forgiving, but not that forgiving 🙈

line numbers are used for positioning when writing output, so the order and completeness of lines are important. do not shuffle your hexdump, I'm begging 🫶

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🐛 BUGS 🐛

no known bugs so far. she's flawless, allegedly 💅

issues can be reported at: https://github.com/xyproto/tinyxxd/issues — go snitch respectfully 💖

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

tinyxxd was written by a whole group chat of absolute legends:

• Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>
• Jürgen Weigert <jnweiger@gmail.com>
• DungSaga <dungsaga@users.noreply.github.com>
• Atsushi SUGAWARA <peanutsjamjam@gmail.com>
• Yegappan Lakshmanan <yegappan@yahoo.com>
• Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>
• David Gow <david@ingeniumdigital.com>
• Philip H <47042125+pheiduck@users.noreply.github.com>
• Aapo Rantalainen <aapo.rantalainen@gmail.com>
• Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
• Ken Takata <kentkt@csc.jp>
• tristhaus <tristhaus@yahoo.de>
• OldWorldOrdr <joey.t.reinhart@gmail.com>
• Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson@gmail.com>
• Igor Todorovski <itodorov@ca.ibm.com>
• Kuratius <Kuratius@gmx.net>
• Goffredo Baroncelli <kreijack@inwind.it>
• Lennard Hofmann <lennard.hofmann@web.de>
• RestorerZ <restorer@mail2k.ru>
• Husam Harazi <i@vimmer.dev>
• Oliver Webb <aquahobbyist@proton.me>
• Andre Chang <andre@augmentcode.com>
• Randy Eckenrode <randy@largeandhighquality.com>
• Alexander F. Rødseth <xyproto@archlinux.org>
• Noah Gitsham <me@noahgitsham.com>
• Lukáš Jiřiště <kyci@ljiriste.work>

twenty-seven names and every single one of them ate 🔥

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⭐ VERSION ⭐

tinyxxd 1.3.17 — she's on version 1.3.17 and thriving 💜

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• xxd(1) — original hex dump utility. the mother of the vibe, the blueprint, the blueprint-adjacent icon 🌸

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🎀 this was tinyxxd(1), dated 29 Sep 2026, version tinyxxd 1.3.17 — now go dump something and make it cute 💖✨