Simple Hex-Dump using the PowerShell
The Windows Powershell is quite nice. Of course, now all the Linux users start bitching around, that they always has something like this and that it is nothing special. And no one claims otherwise. But still, the PowerShell is nice and I enjoy it. :-)
Like today: I needed a simple hex dump of a file:
PS > $str = ""; $cnt = 0; get-content -encoding byte C:\pfad\zur\Datei.txt | foreach-object { $str += (" {0:x2}" -f $_); if ($cnt++ -eq 7) { $cnt = 0; $str += "`n"; } }; write-host $str
It’s elegance is limited, that I will admit, however, I does it’s job. And, somehow, it is quite nice …
A slightly more idiomatic version, without the leading space:
gc C:\pfad\zur\Datei.txt -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 8 | % { ($_ | % { “{0:x2}” -f $_ }) -join ” ” }
Here’s one that will output a prettified hexdump with ASCII sidebar.
function Get-HexDump($bytes)
{
$chunks = [Math]::Ceiling($bytes.Length / 16);
$hexDump = 0..($chunks – 1) | %{
$bufferSize = if ($_ -ne $chunks – 1) { 16 } else { $bytes.Length – $_ * 16}
[byte[]] $buffer = @(0) * $bufferSize
[Array]::Copy($bytes, $_ * 16, $buffer, 0, $bufferSize)
$bufferChars = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetChars($buffer);
$hexRow = ($_ * 16).ToString(“X8”) + “: ”
$hexRow += (($buffer | %{ $_.ToString(“X2″) }) -join ” “)
$hexRow += (” ” * ((17 – $buffer.Length) * 3))
$hexRow += (($bufferChars | %{ if ([char]::IsControl($_) -eq $true) { “.” } else { “$_” } }) -join “”)
$hexRow
}
return $hexDump
}
Just to be a Unix/Linux bitch:
hexdump
What about format-hex? Too simple?
Format-hex was introduced with Powershell 5.0 in August 2015. I wrote this article in 2013. Sadly, I am still not capable of reliably predicting future software. ;-)