OD(1)

💿 OD(1) — the dump-files-in-octal-and-other-formats page, bestie edition ✨

okay so real talk: this is od from the Perl user-contributed manpages, and it's literally the "look inside a file and show me the raw bytes" tool. no cap, it's giving x-ray vision for files. 🦋

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🌸 NAME 🌸

od — dump files in octal and other formats 💅

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⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

od [ -aBbcDdeFfHhilOosXxv ] [-j skip_bytes] [-N limit_bytes]
      [ -A radix ] [ -t type ] [ file... ]

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so here's the vibe: od writes the contents of the files you give it to the standard output — or, if you don't name any files at all, it just reads from the standard input. main character energy, honestly. 🫶

every line of the output has the offset in the input file chilling in the leftmost column, and then one or more columns of file data after it — and the format of that data is entirely up to the options you pick. by default? od prints the file offsets in octal and the file data as two-byte octal numbers. classic. ✨

💜 OPTIONS 💜

the following options are available, and yes, we're going through all of them:

• -A Radix — picks the offset prefix format: 'd' for decimal, 'o' for octal, 'x' for hexadecimal, 'n' for none.
• -a — dumps characters in 7-bit ASCII format, ignoring the highest bit of each byte. the names of ASCII control characters get displayed, which is lowkey iconic.
• -B — same as -o
• -b — single-byte octal display.
• -c — displays characters literally, with non-printable characters shown as C escape sequences. very readable, very slay.
• -D — four-byte unsigned decimal display.
• -d — two-byte unsigned decimal display.
• -e — eight-byte floating point display.
• -F — same as -e
• -f — shows input as floating point numbers in exponent form.
• -H — four-byte hex display.
• -h — two-byte hex display.
• -i — shows two-byte signed decimal integers.
• -j Skip — ignore the first Skip bytes of input. like skipping the intro, but for bytes.
• -l — shows four-byte signed decimal integers.
• -N Bytes — sets the number of maximum input bytes read.
• -O — four-byte octal display.
• -o — formats input as two-byte octal numbers.
• -s — same as -i
• -t Type — selects the output format as one of the following, and ngl this list is a whole mood:
  • a — ASCII character names. Same as -a
  • c — Characters with C escapes. Same as -c
  • o1 — 1-byte unsigned octal
  • o2 — 2-byte unsigned octal
  • o4 — 4-byte unsigned octal
  • o8 — 8-byte unsigned octal
  • d1 — 1-byte signed decimal
  • d2 — 2-byte signed decimal
  • d4 — 4-byte signed decimal
  • d8 — 8-byte signed decimal
  • u1 — 1-byte unsigned decimal
  • u2 — 2-byte unsigned decimal
  • u4 — 4-byte unsigned decimal
  • u8 — 8-byte unsigned decimal
  • x1 — 1-byte unsigned hexadecimal
  • x2 — 2-byte unsigned hexadecimal
  • x4 — 4-byte unsigned hexadecimal
  • x8 — 8-byte unsigned hexadecimal
  • f4 — 4-byte floating point. Same as -f
  • f8 — 8-byte floating point. Same as -F

heads up bestie: this option overrides other formatting options. so like, -t wins, periodt. 👑

• -X — same as -H
• -x — same as -h
• -v — shows all lines, even if they're identical to the previous line. no skipping duplicates, no filtering, we see everything. 💀

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• od(1)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Mark Kahn, mkahn@vbe.com. shoutout mark!! 🫶

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🌈 COPYRIGHT and LICENSE 🌈

This program is copyright (c) Mark Kahn 1999.

This program is free and open software. You may use, modify, distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish, provided you do not restrict others from doing the same. 💖

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k that's the whole page!! this one came from perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15 — so like, cite it cute when you quote it 🎀✨ bye bestie!! 💅🌸