od

Additional Notes

od is a text-processing command used to dump files in octal, hexadecimal, decimal, or character formats. It is essential for examining the raw byte content of binary files, inspecting file headers, and debugging encoding issues.

od is specified by POSIX and behaves consistently across Unix-like systems. Use -t x1 for hex byte dumps and -A n to suppress address prefixes.

Syntax

od [options] [file...]

Parameters

• options: Flags that change how od behaves.
• file: Text file to read or process.

Common Options

• -t TYPE: Select output format.
• -A RADIX: Select address base.
• -N N: Read only N bytes.

Examples

od -An -tx1 file.bin
od -c file.txt
od -N 16 -tx1 file.bin

Practical Notes

od is portable and useful in scripts that inspect raw bytes.