srec_binary(5) [debian man page]
srec_binary(5) File Formats Manual srec_binary(5) NAME
srec_binary - binary file format DESCRIPTION
It is possible to read and write binary files using srec_cat(1). File Holes A file hole is a portion of a regular file that contains NUL characters and is not stored in any data block on disk. Holes are a long- standing feature of Unix files. For instance, the following Unix command creates a file in which the first bytes are a hole: $ echo -n "X" | dd of=/tmp/hole bs=1024 seek=6 $ Now /tmp/hole has 6,145 characters (6,144 NUL characters plus an X character), yet the file occupies just one data block on disk. File holes were introduced to avoid wasting disk space. They are used extensively by database applications and, more generally, by all applications that perform hashing on files. See http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxkernel2/chapter/ch17.pdf for more information. Reading The size of binary files is taken from the size of the file on the file system. If the file has holes these will read as blocks of NUL (zero) data, as there is no elegant way to detect Unix file holes. In general, you probably want to use the -unfill filter to find and remove large swathes of zero bytes. Writing In producing a binary file, srec_cat(1) honours the address information and places the data into the binary file at the addresses specified in the hex file. This usually results on holes in the file. Sometimes alarmingly large file sizes are reported as a result. If you are on a brain-dead operating system without file holes then there are going to be real data blocks containing real zero bytes, and consuming real amounts of disk space. Upgrade - I suggest Linux. To make a file of the size you expect, use srec_info foo.s19 to find the lowest address, then use srec_cat foo.s19 -intel -offset -n -o foo.bin -binary where n is the lowest address present in the foo.s19 file, as reported by srec_info(1). The negative offset serves to move the data down to have an origin of zero. SEE ALSO
srec_input(1) for a description of the -unfill filter srec_examples(1) has a section about binary files, and ways of automagically offseting the data back to zero in a single command. COPYRIGHT
SRrecord version 1.58 Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Peter Miller The SRrecord program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the 'SRrecord -VERSion License' command. This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details use the 'SRrecord -VERSion License' command. AUTHOR
Peter Miller E-Mail: pmiller@opensource.org.au //* WWW: http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/ Reference Manual SRecord srec_binary(5)
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srec_tektronix(5) File Formats Manual srec_tektronix(5) NAME
srec_tektronix - Tektronix hexadecimal file format DESCRIPTION
The Tektronix hexadecimal file format is no longer very common. It serves a similar purpose to the Motorola and Intel formats, usually used to transfer data into EPROM programmers. The Lines Most Tektronix hex files contain only Tektronix hex lines (see the next section), which always start with a slash ("/[rq]) character. There are only two types of lines - data lines and a termination line. Data Lines Data lines have five fields: address, length, checksum 1, data and checksum 2. The lines always start with a slash ("/[rq]) character. +--+---------+--------+-----------+------+-----------+ |/ | Address | Length | Checksum1 | Data | Checksum2 | +--+---------+--------+-----------+------+-----------+ Address This is a 4 character (2 byte) address that specifies where the data in the record is to be loaded into memory. Data Length The data length field is a 2 character (1 byte) field that specifies the number of character pairs (bytes) in the data field. This field never has a value of zero. Checksum 1 The checksum 1 field is a 2 character (1 byte) field. Its value is the 8-bit sum of the six 4-bit values which make up the address and length fields. Data The data field contains character pairs (bytes); the number of character pairs (bytes) is indicated by the length field. Checksum 2 The checksum 2 field is a 2 character (1 byte) field. Its value is the least significant byte of the sum of the all the 4-bit val- ues of the data field. Termination Line Termination lines have three fields: address, zero and checksum. The lines always start with a slash ("/[rq]) character. +--+---------+------+----------+ |/ | Address | Zero | Checksum | +--+---------+------+----------+ Address This is a 4 character (2 byte) address that specifies where to begin execution. Zero The data length field is a 2 character (1 byte) field of value zero. Checksum The checksum 1 field is a 2 character (1 byte) field. Its value is the 8-bit sum of the six 4-bit values which make up the address and zero fields. Size Multiplier In general, binary data will expand in sized by approximately 2.4 times when represented with this format. EXAMPLE
Here is an example Tektronix hex file. It contains the data "Hello, World[rq] to be loaded at address 0. /00000D0D48656C6C6F2C20576F726C640A52 /00000000 COPYRIGHT
srec_cat version 1.58 Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Peter Miller The srec_cat program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License' command. This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License' command. AUTHOR
Peter Miller E-Mail: pmiller@opensource.org.au //* WWW: http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/ Reference Manual SRecord srec_tektronix(5)